RESEARCH WEEKLY: National Institute of Mental Health Funding Priorities for Bipolar Disorder
By Kelli South
The grant funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for research into bipolar disorder is lower than funding for other serious mental illness research and focuses heavily on basic science research instead of clinical research, according to a new article published in Journal of Affective Disorders.
The article, written by Treatment Advocacy Center Board President Dr. Michael Knable and Treatment Advocacy Center Founder Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, picks up on their previous investigation on the decline of NIMH spending in clinical research for serious mental illness.
The authors utilized the Research Condition and Disease Categorization (RCDC) database provided by the NIMH to increase transparency in research funding by the federal government agency. They analyzed all research grants from 2019 that funded research on bipolar disorder and found that funding for bipolar disorder grants for the year were lower than funding for other serious mental illness grants. Bipolar disorder grants totaled $89 million, while funding for major depressive disorder grants totaled $131 million and funding for schizophrenia grants totaled $263 million.
Additionally, the authors examined the type of research that was funded for bipolar disorder and assessed whether the research was likely to improve the lives of patients with bipolar disorder within the next 20 years. They discovered that there were no grants awarded for clinical trials of medications and very few grants awarded to projects studying behavioral treatments or psychotherapies. In fact, fewer than 10% of grants awarded were determined to be helpful for individuals with bipolar disorder in the next 20 years based on the author’s assessment and over 90% of the studies funded were focused on observational or basic science studies related to bipolar disorder.
While basic science studies are important tools to understand the underlying causes of the illness, the lack of clinical research funding reduces the emphasis on creating or improving current medicines and behavioral treatments for people currently living with bipolar disorder. The authors call upon the NIMH to bring funding for bipolar disorder research to a comparable level as funding for other severe mental illnesses and for a greater prioritization of clinical research likely to help those currently living with bipolar disorder.
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