Adult Psychopathology and Psychosocial Interventions Research Branch

Overview

The Adult Psychopathology and Psychosocial Interventions Development Branch promotes translational research that is directed toward advancing discoveries from basic (non-clinical) research into improved understanding of clinical problems and the development and testing of new behavioral, cognitive, and psychosocial interventions. The goals of this work include improving our understanding of how the development, onset, and course of adult psychopathology may be explained by dysfunction in fundamental neurobehavioral mechanisms such as emotion, cognition, motivation, and social processes. The branch supports research on modifiable risk and protective factors for psychopathology and on the use of modern psychometric techniques to guide refinements in the conceptualization and assessment of disorder. Emphasis is placed on studies that combine approaches from neuroscience and behavioral science to produce integrative models of risk, disorder, and recovery, consistent with the RDoC framework.

Areas of Emphasis

• Developing novel methods of classifying mental disorders using integrative methods and dimensional conceptualizations and testing their validity for predicting treatment response and illness course
• Innovative research to understand the psychological, behavioral, cognitive, and neural mechanisms that cause mental disorders
• Developing and testing new preventive and treatment interventions targeted to specific cognitive, emotional, physiological, or interpersonal components of psychopathology
• Identifying ways in which environmental and genetic factors contribute to risk for mental disorders

Branch Chief

Sarah E. Morris, Ph.D.
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 7122, MSC 9625
301-443-9233, sarah.morris@nih.gov