Government
NIMH's leader defends funding priorities
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 9, 2004
The National Institute of Mental Health spends 60% of its budget on research on serious mental disorders, according to the institute's director, Thomas R. Insel, MD. He made his announcement after a recent report from the Treatment Advocacy Center estimated that less than a third of NIMH's budget went to studying serious mental disorders. The report was authored by the center's president, E. Fuller Torrey, MD, who has long criticized NIMH funding priorities. Dr. Torrey also wrote a letter, which appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal, alleging that the institute spends less than 6% of its budget on research that could lead to effective treatments for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression and other serious disorders.
Dr. Insel defended the institute's research on basic science, which he said could help lead to new diagnostic tests and therapies based on genomic and neuroimaging findings.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/02/09/gvbf0209.htm.