Methodological Research Program

Overview

Supports studies that involve development, testing, and refinement of methodologies and instruments to facilitate research on services for mentally ill persons, including measures of severity of illness, family burden, social support, quality of care, effectiveness of care, direct and indirect cost of mental disorders, and short-term and long-term outcome measures; studies submitted by statisticians, psychometricians, and other experts in research methodology and scientific data analysis for work on the design, measurement, and statistical challenges inherent in conducting mental health services research.

Areas of Emphasis

• Work designed to move assessment as rapidly as possible to computerized adaptive testing (CAT).
• Novel subject-centered research designs that incorporate subject choice.
• Studies bearing on the use and/or combination of data from multiple informants, including attention to (1) individual characteristics and ecological-cultural context, and (2) how the influences of these factors change as a function of the nature of the information reported.
• Studies of the reliability and validity of instruments in multiple outcome domains particularly for understudied populations, such as severely mentally ill persons who are homeless, minorities, rural residents, and severely emotionally disturbed children.

Contact

Victor Lushin, Ph.D., M.D., M.S.W.
Program Chief, Methodological Research Program
victor.lushin@nih.gov