{"id":1323,"date":"2017-10-16T09:01:36","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T09:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/?p=1323"},"modified":"2017-10-16T09:21:02","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T09:21:02","slug":"mental-health-research-the-future-beckons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/mental-health-research-the-future-beckons\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health research \u2013 the future beckons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Mental ill health \u2013 a national emergency<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mental ill health is a national crisis. Every year one in four people in the UK suffer from a mental health problem, with huge impact on the individual, their family and society. Mental health problems are one of the largest causes of sickness leave from work, accounting for more than 15 million lost working days per year. The total cost of mental health problems to the economy is estimated to be \u00a370-\u00a3100bn per year. Suicide is the leading cause of death amongst young people aged 20-34 in the UK. Treatments have not significantly advanced for decades and services are massively stretched meaning that many people do not get the support they need. We urgently need to do better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why research is critical<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The fundamental problem that limits our ability to treat mental illness is a lack of adequate understanding of the biological and psychological mechanisms underlying these conditions. Until we understand the causes of a disease or disorder it is extremely hard to improve treatment. This was the case in the rest of medicine \u2013 treatment for diseases like pneumonia and cancer only progressed once we understood their causes. Our understanding of the fundamental causes of mental health problems such as depression, autism and schizophrenia has lagged behind our understanding of conditions like cancer. There is however now real hope now as research is beginning to uncover some of the key risk factors for mental illness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Progress in understanding risk<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It has long been recognised that both genetic and environmental risk factors (\u201cnature and nurture\u201d) can both influence mental health. Understanding these risk factors provides a key route to understanding the causes of mental health problems. \u00a0Many mental health problems run in families and we know from a range of different studies that genetics is important in these conditions. Until recently however it proved very difficult to identify the exact genes involved. In the last decade however there has been exponential progress in finding the genes for conditions like autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, with the UK playing a key role in this research. This has been possible through advances in technology (for example DNA sequencing) and major international collaboration. Genetic studies have shown that genes involved in synapses (the connections between nerve cells) as well as genes affecting the brain\u2019s immune system and genetic control are important in these conditions. This means we are now beginning to understand the causes of mental disorders, and to identify new targets for treatments.<\/p>\n<p>We also know that environmental factors \u2013 including early life events and influences such as stress can also influence risk for mental ill health. Again considerable progress has been made in understanding the relationship between factors such as birth problems, childhood maltreatment and stress and mental health problems. These areas also offer opportunities for novel interventions to prevent mental disorders, be it through psychological treatments, societal changes or new medications.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The tools to develop new treatments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In order to take forward the promise of this new understanding of risk for mental ill health into better treatments we need to understand how genetic and environmental factors affect the brain. Studying the brain is however difficult due to both its complexity and inaccessibility. Fortunately significant recent advances in neuroscience now make such research possible. In particular, the ability to take peripheral cells (such as a skin sample) from patients and turn them into brain cells in a dish (so called induced pluripotent stem cell technology) means we can directly study the functions of brain cells from patients. Such cells also provide a new way of testing novel treatments. Advances in brain scanning also mean that we have unprecedented means to investigate the structural, functional and chemical changes in the brain associated with mental health problems. The coincidence of these advances in neuroscience with the greater understanding of risk means that this is a time of enormous opportunity for the development of new treatments for mental disorders.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What we need to do next<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The UK has great strengths in mental health and neuroscience research, but this is currently distributed across different centres. Mental health research receives only 6% of our national spending on health research, despite the huge burden of these disorders. What we need now is a national strategy to bring together our excellent researchers in these fields and to generate a national programme for mental health research bringing together the diverse expertise that we will be required to make progress. Such a strategy could parallel that recently developed for dementia research, and ideally would benefit from close synergies in the study of these important brain disorders. A national strategy for mental health research, allied with appropriate investment, would also provide a strong message to help tackle the stigma that still exists in association with mental disorders, and would provide a platform against which to support and improve our mental health services. Finally, given the huge unmet need in mental health and the great opportunity for advances in treating a range of brain disorders, a clear national programme of research in this area in the UK will provide an important basis for ongoing industrial investment in the health sector in the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mental ill health \u2013 a national emergency Mental ill health is a national crisis. Every year one in four people in the UK suffer from a mental health problem, with [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1061,"featured_media":1327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,9,8,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-mental-health","category-child-and-adolescent-mental-health","category-diagnosis-treatments-well-being","category-mental-health-and-society"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7swiU-ll","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":207,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/mental-health-united-we-stand-divided-we-fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":1323,"position":0},"title":"Mental health: United we stand, divided we fall","author":"Professor Michael Owen","date":"6 June 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Mental health is never far from the headlines these days and this is as it should be. One in four of us will suffer from some form of mental ill health in any given year. Mental illness affects people across the lifespan from children to the elderly, and the burden\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Adult mental health&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"X-ray scan of a brain","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/05\/iStock_000031019390_Medium.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1236,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/could-data-science-revolutionise-mental-health-care\/","url_meta":{"origin":1323,"position":1},"title":"Could data science revolutionise mental health care?","author":"Kathryn Excell","date":"2 August 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"One in four people are affected by mental illness each year, with often devastating impacts on their lives. And whilst mental illness is gaining increasing attention in the media and political debate, our understanding of what causes conditions ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia is still woefully inadequate, with research lagging\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Adult mental health&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/08\/data-science-cover-photo.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/08\/data-science-cover-photo.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/08\/data-science-cover-photo.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/08\/data-science-cover-photo.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1316,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/world-mental-health-day-mental-health-in-the-workplace\/","url_meta":{"origin":1323,"position":2},"title":"World Mental Health Day: Mental health in the workplace","author":"Amy Sykes","date":"10 October 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"World Mental Health Day is October 10 2017, and this year the focus set by the World Federation for Mental Health is mental health in the workplace. 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As part\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Adult mental health&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/world-mental-health.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/world-mental-health.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/world-mental-health.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/world-mental-health.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/world-mental-health.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":434,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/understanding-mental-health-systems-and-services\/","url_meta":{"origin":1323,"position":3},"title":"Understanding mental health systems and services","author":"Ben Hannigan","date":"6 June 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Working in collaboration with colleagues across the UK, including with people who have directly used services, researchers in the School of Healthcare Sciences at Cardiff University study mental health systems. Our projects investigate the organisation and delivery of health and social care, the work that professionals and others do, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Adult mental health&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/06\/yJl7OB3sSpOdEIpHhZhd_DSC_1929_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/06\/yJl7OB3sSpOdEIpHhZhd_DSC_1929_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/06\/yJl7OB3sSpOdEIpHhZhd_DSC_1929_1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/06\/yJl7OB3sSpOdEIpHhZhd_DSC_1929_1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/06\/yJl7OB3sSpOdEIpHhZhd_DSC_1929_1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/06\/yJl7OB3sSpOdEIpHhZhd_DSC_1929_1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1408,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/sleep-the-golden-chain-for-mental-health\/","url_meta":{"origin":1323,"position":4},"title":"Sleep: The golden chain for mental health","author":"Katie Swaden Lewis","date":"1 December 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Winter is here, and whether or not you enjoy the darker evenings, colder weather and premature Christmas decorations in shops, most will rejoice at the extra hour in bed that marks the change from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time. 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Perinatal mental illness can be severe and have significant implications for women, their families and wider society. Suicide is a leading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Adult mental health&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Adult mental health","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/category\/adult-mental-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/07\/iStock_24719097_LARGE.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/07\/iStock_24719097_LARGE.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/07\/iStock_24719097_LARGE.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/07\/iStock_24719097_LARGE.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/07\/iStock_24719097_LARGE.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2016\/07\/iStock_24719097_LARGE.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/502\/2017\/10\/mental-1831391_1280.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1061"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1332,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions\/1332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}