Rutgers receives $4 million federal grant for center on mental health therapeutics
Archived article from Apr 24, 2006
By Steve Manas
Rutgers has been selected as the site for a federally funded Center for Education and Research on Mental Health Therapeutics that will serve as a national resource on the safe and effective use of prescription drugs in mental health treatment.
Professor Stephen Crystal will direct the new center, which will conduct research to better understand how prescription drugs are used in day-to-day treatment of mentally ill patients, with a special focus on the elderly, children and adolescents. The center also will develop educational activities to translate research findings into information that is accessible to prescribers, patients, their families, policy makers and regulators to improve the quality and outcomes of treatment.
The center will be funded with $4 million over five years by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in cooperation with the Food and Drug Administration, as part of AHRQ’s program of Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics.
“Federal funding of this magnitude recognizes the caliber of our faculty,” said President Richard L. McCormick. “This type of initiative is central to our vision of the university as an institution that effectively combines great strengths in fundamental research and education with service to our constituencies.” An award from Rutgers’ Academic Excellence Fund led to the center’s creation.
The center will have consortium partners, including the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry/New York State Office of Mental Health and the American Psychiatric Association through its Institute for Research and Education.
“Pharmacological research and development has brought us powerful new medications that can ease the suffering and improve the functioning of persons with mental health conditions,” said Crystal, a professor at Rutgers’ Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research and the School of Social Work. “But these drugs also carry significant risks, and their promise is not always translated into the most effective clinical care. There is a pressing need for better information and education on the uses, outcomes and risks of drugs in the mental health field.”
Crystal said the center will draw Rutgers researchers from numerous academic units, including the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, the School of Social Work, the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and the department of statistics, among others, as well as University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s medical schools and School of Public Health.
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