Experimental Therapeutics: Opportunities and Challenges Stemming From the National Institute of Mental Health Workshop on Novel Target Discovery and Psychosocial Intervention Development
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: There has been slow progress in the development of interventions that prevent and/or reduce mental-health morbidity and mortality. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) launched an experimental-therapeutics initiative with the goal of accelerating the development of effective interventions. The emphasis is on interventions designed to engage a target mechanism. A target mechanism is a process (e.g., behavioral, neurobiological) proposed to underlie change in a defined clinical endpoint and through change in which an intervention exerts its effect. This article is based on discussions from an NIMH workshop conducted in February 2020 and subsequent conversations among researchers using this approach. We discuss the components of an experimental-therapeutics approach such as clinical-outcome selection, target definition and measurement, intervention design and selection, and implementation of a team-science strategy. We emphasize the important contributions of different constituencies (e.g., patients, caregivers, providers) in deriving hypotheses about novel target mechanisms. We highlight strategies for target-mechanism identification using published and hypothetical examples. We consider the decision-making dilemmas that arise with different patterns of results in purported mechanisms and clinical outcomes. We end with considerations of the practical challenges of this approach and the implications for future directions of this initiative.
Institutions: Duke University, Duke Medical Center, University of Georgia, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, National Institute of Mental Health, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Illinois Chicago, Weill Cornell Medicine, University of California, Davis
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Washington, Uppsala Universitet, Stony Brook University, National Institutes of Health, University of California, Davis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Awards: Virtual Reality Attention Management Program for Improving Attention in Children, G156123175, G2190215530, G229842073, Virtual Reality Attention Management Program for Improving Attention in Children, G3605428241, Neurofeedback Processing Speed Training to Improve Social Functioning in Teenagers and Young Adults at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis, G4453981327, Feeling and Body Investigators (FBI)-ARFID Division: Sensory and Somatic Exposure for Children with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, G4810352609, G494838847, G5074389239, G6547554901, G6642484344, Using Serious Game Technology to Improve Sensitivity to Eye Gaze in Autism, Developmental Changes in Neural Processes Underlying Inattention, Impulsivity and Regulation, G841179789, SCH: INT: Computational Tools for Avoidaint/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder , G9000131138, UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center
OpenAlex ID: W4387900243