Suchergebnisse

Within the ROAMER project, funded by the European Commission, a survey was conducted with national associations/organizations of psychiatrists, other mental health professionals, users and/or carers, and psychiatric trainees in the 27 countries of the European Union, aiming to explore their views about priorities for mental health research in Europe. One hundred and eight associations/organizations returned the questionnaire. The five most frequently selected research priorities were early detection and management of mental disorders, quality of mental health services, prevention of mental disorders, rehabilitation and social inclusion, and new medications for mental disorders. All these areas, except the last one, were among the top ten research priorities according to all categories of stakeholders, along with stigma and discrimination. These results seem to support the recent argument that some rebalancing in favor of psychosocial and health service studies may be needed in psychiatric research.

Christina M van der Feltz-Cornelis,1–3 Jim van Os,4,6 Susanne Knappe,5 Gunter Schumann,6 Eduard Vieta,7 Hans-Ulrich Wittchen,5 Shôn W Lewis,8 Iman Elfeddali,2,9 Kristian Wahlbeck,10,11 Donald Linszen,4 Carla Obradors-Tarragó,12,13 Josep Maria Haro12–141Trimbos Instituut, Utrecht, 2Tilburg University, Tranzo Department, Tilburg, 3GGz Breburg, Tilburg, 4Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, Euron, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, the Netherlands; 5Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy and Center for Epidemiology and Longitudinal Studies, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany; 6Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK; 7Institute of Neuroscience, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; 8School of Community-Based Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; 9Department of Health Promotion/School of Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands; 10The Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg, Sweden; 11National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland; 12Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, Madrid, 13Research and Development Unit, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Fundació Sant Joan de Déu, Sant Boi de Llobregat, 14Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, SpainBackground: The size and increasing burden of disease due to mental disorders in Europe poses substantial challenges to its population and to the health policy of the European Union. This warrants a specific research agenda concerning clinical mental health research as one of the cornerstones of sustainable mental health research and health policy in Europe. The aim of this research was to identify the top priorities needed to address the main challenges in clinical research for mental disorders.Methods: The research was conducted as an expert survey and expert panel discussion during a scientific workshop.Results: Eighty-nine experts in clinical research and representing most European countries participated in this survey. Identified top priorities were the need for new intervention studies, understanding the diagnostic and therapeutic implications of mechanisms of disease, and research in the field of somatic-psychiatric comorbidity. The "subjectivity gap" between basic neuroscience research and clinical reality for patients with mental disorders is considered the main challenge in psychiatric research, suggesting that a shift in research paradigms is required.Conclusion: Innovations in clinical mental health research should bridge the gap between mechanisms underlying novel therapeutic interventions and the patient experience of mental disorder and, if present, somatic comorbidity. Clinical mental health research is relatively underfunded and should receive specific attention in Horizon 2020 funding programs.Keywords: clinical research, mental health, randomized clinical trials, Horizon 2020, expert survey, challenge, research agenda, Europe

BACKGROUND: The size and increasing burden of disease due to mental disorders in Europe poses substantial challenges to its population and to the health policy of the European Union. This warrants a specific research agenda concerning clinical mental health research as one of the cornerstones of sustainable mental health research and health policy in Europe. The aim of this research was to identify the top priorities needed to address the main challenges in clinical research for mental disorders. METHODS: The research was conducted as an expert survey and expert panel discussion during a scientific workshop. RESULTS: Eighty-nine experts in clinical research and representing most European countries participated in this survey. Identified top priorities were the need for new intervention studies, understanding the diagnostic and therapeutic implications of mechanisms of disease, and research in the field of somatic-psychiatric comorbidity. The 'subjectivity gap' between basic neuroscience research and clinical reality for patients with mental disorders is considered the main challenge in psychiatric research, suggesting that a shift in research paradigms is required. CONCLUSION: Innovations in clinical mental health research should bridge the gap between mechanisms underlying novel therapeutic interventions and the patient experience of mental disorder and, if present, somatic comorbidity. Clinical mental health research is relatively underfunded and should receive specific attention in Horizon 2020 funding programs.

Despite the high impact of mental disorders in society, European mental health research is at a critical situation with a relatively low level of funding, and few advances been achieved during the last decade. The development of coordinated research policies and integrated research networks in mental health is lagging behind other disciplines in Europe, resulting in lower degree of cooperation and scientific impact. To reduce more efficiently the burden of mental disorders in Europe, a concerted new research agenda is necessary. The ROAMER (Roadmap for Mental Health Research in Europe) project, funded under the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme, aims to develop a comprehensive and integrated mental health research agenda within the perspective of the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 programme, with a translational goal, covering basic, clinical and public health research. ROAMER covers six major domains: infrastructures and capacity building, biomedicine, psychological research and treatments, social and economic issues, public health and well‐being. Within each of them, state‐of‐the‐art and strength, weakness and gap analyses were conducted before building consensus on future research priorities. The process is inclusive and participatory, incorporating a wide diversity of European expert researchers as well as the views of service users, carers, professionals and policy and funding institutions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.