Posted by capricorn on March 25, 2007, at 15:08:35
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=455502007
Can research rise to the challenge of mental illness?
NATASHA TIANFOR the culmination of Brain Awareness Week neuroscientists from universities and research institutes across the world were brought together in Edinburgh to discuss their research and forge new collaborations.
The research talks were refreshingly varied and spanned disciplines from hardcore molecular neuroscience to clinical psychiatry and music therapy. One of the highlights of the day was a lecture, entitled "Psychiatry in the Decade of Discovery", by Tom Insel, director of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, USA.
Insel began with a shocking fact: "Over the last 40 years, the numbers of people suffering with and dying from mental illnesses, such as depression and schizophrenia, have not been reduced."
In stark contrast, over the same period, there has been a huge reduction in deaths from diseases such as stroke and heart disease, through prevention and treatment.
Why is there such a difference between diseases of the body and those of the mind? A main problem is that mental disorders are diagnosed late in the disease process when symptoms become apparent, leading to a poor prognosis.
There are no cures, no vaccines and no single "depression gene" or "schizophrenia gene", which makes it harder to get to the root cause of the disease. Although some progress has been made in identifying certain regions in the DNA that differ between individuals, some variants of which may increase the risk of developing mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, the causes of these diseases are unknown and probably involve a complex mixture of genetic and environmental factors.
To put our lack of knowledge in perspective, a recent paper in the science journal Nature revealed that 80 per cent of the 23,000 genes in the genome are expressed in the brain. However, we only know the function of about 5 -10 per cent of these 23,000 genes and these are known to be influenced by "epigenetic" or non-genetic factors.
The lack of progress in mental health is worrying, with mental illnesses are increasing across the globe. A 2002 report from the World Health Organisation revealed that one in four people will suffer from mental health problems at some point.
In Scotland, the burden of mental health illnesses has been steadily rising and was considered worrying enough for the Scottish Executive to commission NHS Health Scotland to establish a core set of well-being indicators to assess mental health in Scotland over the course of three years from December 2003.
Given these sobering facts, it is heartening to know that NIMH has the world's largest budget of over £710 million dedicated to acquiring knowledge that will further understanding of mental disorders, provide treatments and ultimately preventive measures.
Insel believes that the only way we can make progress in mental health research is to "make a business case for science" and "talk to policy makers about the importance of mental illness".
Scientists from universities do not often view their research as a business, although this is changing with the emergence of collaborative links between academia and industry and technology transfer. Insel urged Edinburgh neuroscientists to ask themselves "What are the best investments to make in brain research?"
In the "Decade of the Brain" from 1990 to 2000, brain imaging allowed us to study brain processes and provide a crude "map" of brain regions that are active during certain tasks. Insel proposed that 2000-10 should be called the "Decade of Discovery" for brain research. For this to be realised, he said that the culture of science must change and become more interdisciplinary, bringing together scientists with different but complementary skills, such as psychologists, biologists and physicists.
Private ownership of research should give way to public access where data and resources are shared among researchers to further progress. Although sharing research findings immediately with peers is viewed as professional suicide at present, Insel was hopeful that this attitude would change in the future.
Despite the long road from mental health research to treatment and prevention, Insel concluded his lecture on a positive note: "There is no reason why we cannot reduce the burden of mental illness in the future." But Insel emphasised again and again that in order to meet this challenge "the culture of science has to change".
poster:capricorn
thread:744146
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070320/msgs/744146.html