Neurological and mental disorders and diseases news, resources and funding for global health researchers

Fogarty and the NIH invest in research to address a number of neurological and mental disorders and diseases. These conditions are an enormous burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which lack the financial and human resources to deal with them. Included are:

• Addiction
• Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
• Neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and learning disabilities
• Neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Seizure disorders

Fogarty and NIH also support research on how environmental exposures, childhood adversity, nutrition, injury and other factors impact brain development, and how the rehabilitation process for these diseases and disorders influences treatment and recovery.

Research at NIH on the full spectrum of brain disorders and diseases spans many of the NIH Institutes and Center. Fogarty's Global Brain Disorders Research program generates more trans-NIH support than any other Fogarty program.

Top News

• Blood test for early Alzheimer’s detection
  NIH Research Matters, January 10, 2023
• NIH Biomarkers Consortium Project Will Characterize a New Imaging Tool Used to Measure Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients
  Foundation for NIH news, October 4, 2022
• A Global-Local Paradigm for Mental Health: A Model and Implications for Addressing Disparities Through Training and Research Fogarty grantee Kristina Korte lead author
  Academic Psychiatry, August 9, 2022
• Researchers uncover how the human brain separates, stores, and retrieves memories
  NIH news release, March 7, 2022
• Dropout from treatment for mental disorders in six countries of the Americas: A regional report from the World Mental Health Surveys, Fogarty grantee Corina Benjet lead author
  Journal of Affective Disorders, February 11, 2022
• Social distance and stigma towards persons with serious mental illness among medical students in five European Central Asia countries, Fogarty grantee Kerim Munir lead author
  Psychiatry Research, January 24, 2022
• Researchers study refugee families’ mental health needs
  Jan / Feb 2022 Global Health Matters
• Profile: Dr Andrew Kim studies the impact of apartheid-based prenatal stress and COVID-19 in South Africa
  Jan / Feb 2021 Global Health Matters
• Grantee news: Schizophrenia study in Africa [supported by Fogarty and NIMH] is boosting equity in global genetics research
  Broad Institute news, October 8, 2020
• Correspondence: Implementation science for brain disorders, authored by Fogarty staff
  The Lancet Neurology, August 1, 2020
• Fogarty grantee Dr Manasi Kumar studies COVID [mental health] impact on pregnant teens in Kenya
  May / June 2020 Global Health Matters
• Fogarty Fellow Dr Dang Hoang Minh addresses COVID mental health needs in Vietnam
  May / June 2020 Global Health Matters
• Genes linked to schizophrenia identified in ancestral African population
  NIH Research Matters, February 11, 2020
  

Related Fogarty News and Information

Feature: Mental health treatment abroad

• Addressing mental health abroad helps US communities
  
• Employing user-centered design to fill gaps in mental health treatment
  
• Tackling tobacco, TB, and mental health in South Africa

Global Health Matters, Nov/Dec 2022

NIH News and Resources

Neuroscience and Neurological Disorders

• NIH Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative
• Neuroscience@NIH
• NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research
• NIH NeuroBioBank - A federated network of U.S. brain and tissue repositories
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) resources:
• NINDS Disorder Index
• NINDS Common Data Elements (CDE) Project - systematically collect, analyze and share data across the neurological research community
• NINDS Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience funding
• Neuroscience from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Neurological Diseases and Disorders and Climate Change from National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Global Environmental Health
• International Alzheimer's Disease Research Portfolio (IADRP) from the National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Mental Health

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH):
• Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health from NIMH
• Mental Health Information from NIMH
• Webinars on Disparities and Global Mental Health from NIMH
• NIMH 2020 Strategic Plan
• Grand Challenges in Mental Health article series following NIH workshop 
  PLOS Medicine, spring 2013:
• Integration in research, policy and practice
• Integrating maternal mental health into maternal and child health programs
• Integrating mental health care into the noncommunicable disease agenda
• Improving HIV treatment outcomes by integrating interventions for comorbid mental illness
• Integrating mental health services into priority health care platforms
• Mental Health and Stress-Related Disorders
  from NIEHS Global Environmental Health

Aging

• National Institute on Aging (NIA) on Global Aging

Addiction

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) on Addiction Science
• NIDA International Program

Other US Government Resources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Mental Health information
• Department of Defense (DoD): DoD Special Report: Traumatic Brain Injury
• Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
• National Center for PTSD
• VA, DOD embark on new endeavor to study mysteries of traumatic brain injury
  VA Office of Research and Development news, January 14, 2020
• MentalHealth.gov
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS)
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• United States Agency for International Development (USAID)U.S. Government Action Plan on Children in Adversity

Other Online Resources

• Global mental health series
  from The Lancet, October 17, 2011
• International Brain Research Organization (IBRO)
• Society for Neuroscience
• World Health Organization (WHO): Mental Health and Substance Use
  

Updated January 13, 2023