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By Rodrigo Muņoz, M.D.
APA President
Dr. Steve Hyman, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), has been engaged, with the help of an extraordinary staff, in translating the expanding science of psychiatry into clinical practice. By so doing, NIMH is leading the way in bringing together cutting-edge information from the basic and clinical sciences to enhance patient care.
The flood of information improving the efficacy of psychiatric treatment has been nothing less than astounding. A better understanding of repetitive events in the brain has given us a new picture of chemical dependence. The need for new psychosocial rehabilitation strategies in schizophrenia has in part emerged because of advances in neuropharmacology. Studies of clinical course and therapeutic responses in depression have yielded a new and very different understanding of this disorder. As electronic communication connects more and more people, the integration of science and clinical practice will occur more rapidly.
The scientific evolution in psychiatry has not been uniform or predictable. Particular disorders have moved to the forefront of research often because of the simultaneous intersection of basic-science discoveries and acute human need. For example, there is much we can do today to help individuals suffering from Alzheimer's disease-a population that is quickly expanding as baby boomers age. Advances in imaging, neurochemistry, and genetics in the past decade have led to the development of treatments that alleviate patients' symptoms at the same time that social agencies and mental health professionals are paying more attention to psychosocial interventions that delay the need to institutionalize patients and that alleviate the often crushing burden endured by caregivers.
For the many psychiatrists who devote their lives to the daily care of the very sick, there is every reason to shake the hands of our colleagues at the National Institutes of Health (which includes the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse) and others. APA, too, has contributed in many ways to improving the quality of care psychiatrists provide to patients-our efforts in this area represent one of APA's most important missions.
That we are able to improve psychiatric practice on a rapid and continuous basis demonstrates that behind every good clinician, there is an inquisitive researcher.