Treatment And Preventive Intervention Research Branch

The Treatment and Preventive Intervention Research Branch supports practice-oriented prevention and treatment intervention research aimed at generating new knowledge and methods that can be readily applied in real-world practice and community settings. This branch oversees much of NIMH’s intervention science, including research focused on enhancing interventions (i.e., refining therapies to increase potency and efficiency) and personalizing interventions (i.e., strategies for matching and sequencing treatments) to ensure that they are maximally effective and optimally matched to individual needs.

The programmatic focus of the Treatment and Preventive Intervention Research Branch covers a range of patient characteristics, stages and severity of mental disorders, and interventions (i.e., pharmacological, psychosocial, rehabilitative, and adjunctive) across a variety of practice and community settings. Consistent with Phase 2 translational research (T2) priorities outlined in Strategic Objective 3 of the NIMH Strategic Plan for Research, this branch seeks to support research that anticipates end-user deployment issues at each stage of intervention development and testing. Rigorous experimental therapeutics research on psychotherapeutic, behavioral, and device-based intervention approaches is expected.

Additional areas of emphasis include:

• Identification of moderators and mediators of intervention effects, and their use to develop and test targeted and personalized interventions.
• Evaluation of the combined or sequential use of interventions to extend efficacy among refractory subgroups, determine the optimal length and/or sequence of treatment, establishment of the utility of continuation or maintenance treatment for prevention of relapse and recurrence.
• Evaluation of the long-term impact of efficacious interventions on symptoms and functioning.
• Development and testing of intervention adaptations and augmentations that result in more durable and sustainable intervention effects. 
• The use of technology to improve intervention feasibility and/or effectiveness.
• Applied suicide prevention research focused on improving risk detection, interventions, across various settings, means safety, and aggregating and mining existing data sets (e.g., social media, healthcare system records, mortality data) to identify predictors and opportunities for prevention.

Programs

Child and Adolescent Programs
Adult Research Programs
Research Programs Spanning Childhood and Adulthood

Contact:

Adam Haim, Ph.D.
301-435-3593
adam.haim@nih.gov