RESEARCH WEEKLY: Failed Promises of the NIMH: New Research from Dr. E. Fuller Torrey Released Today
By Elizabeth Hancq
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) was established by Congress in 1948 to conduct and fund research for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric illness. Seventy years later, only 10% of its research projects are rated as having the possibility to produce meaningful impact on the quality of life of individuals with schizophrenia in the next 20 years, according to new research published today in PLOS One.
Conducted by Treatment Advocacy Center Founder Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, board president Dr. Mike Knable, and psychiatric advisory board member Dr. Augustus Rush, the authors independently analyzed all 428 schizophrenia-related research projects funded by the NIMH in 2018. They reviewed each project on the likelihood of the research to improve symptoms and/or quality of life for people with schizophrenia in the next 20 years.
"It totally unacceptable that only 10% of NIMH`s schizophrenia research projects have any possibility of helping people who currently have the disease. NIMH is not privately funded and cannot decide to only do basic research. It is publicly funded and was created to develop better treatments for mentally ill people now, not just in some distant future time," Dr. Torrey said.
The study authors utilized the National Institute of Health Research Condition and Disease Categorization (RCDC) database, which is a publicly-available online database that reports the amount of money being spent by NIH institutes for selected diseases or conditions. All projects related to each category is listed to allow the public to learn about individual projects in more detail.
“The NIH recognizes the importance of keeping the American people informed about how their tax dollars are spent to support medical research,” according to the RCDC website. This tool is also powerful for advocacy groups to understand the medical research priorities of the federal government and how the NIH is utilizing public funds.
The full text of the study, Using the NIH Research, Condition and Disease Categorization Database for research advocacy: Schizophrenia research at NIMH as an example, is available here.
