By Janet Hays, Director, Healing Minds NOLA
August 4, 2023
An email from E Fuller Torrey M.D. today (August 4, 2023) reveals glaring inequity in how NIMH funds research for psychiatric diseases. He writes:
"The NIMH Research Portfolio: An Update" was published today in the Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders (attached). [Torrey, EF, Dailey L, Simmons, W. The NIMH research portfolio: An update. Prim Care Companion CNS Disord 2023;25(0):23m03486]. This report is part of ongoing efforts of the Treatment Advocacy Center to monitor the NIMH research portfolio and urge them to undertake more clinical research to help people with severe psychiatric disorders who are currently suffering.
The article documents the following:
During the 6 years between 2017-2022, NIMH funded only one clinical drug trial for the treatment of schizophrenia and one for the treatment of bipolar disorder.
During the 6 years between 2017-2022, the NIMH-funded research projects on schizophrenia decreased by 22% and those on bipolar disorder decreased by 20%.
Between 2016 and 2021, Congress increased NIMH's budget from $1.5 to $2.1 billion, an increase of 40%. These were among the largest budget increases that NIMH had ever received.
"It appears that the more money Congress gives to NIMH, the less research it does on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."
If you share the opinion of Dr. Torrey and the Treatment Advocacy Center that this is outrageous, please (1) forward this article to others who you think need to see it and (2) notify your Representative and Senator in Washington. Tell them what you think about how NIMH has shifted most of its funding to basic research, which may (or may not) help someone 35 years from now. NIMH is doing almost no research that will help anyone who is currently affected. Ask your Representative and Senator to contact the key members of the Appropriations Committees who determine the NIMH budget. These are the only people NIMH will listen to:"
Key members in the House:
Kay Granger (R-Texas, 12th district)
Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut, 3rd district)
Key members in the Senate:
Tammy Baldwin (D, Wisconsin)
Shelly Capito (R, West Virginia)
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“I originally gave this a four-star rating,
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