Psychosocial Intervention and Aging Program
Overview
This program supports experimental and observational studies aimed at developing and testing behavioral and psychosocial interventions for the treatment, prevention, or rehabilitation of the mental disorders of late life. There is particular interest in supporting studies consistent with NIMH’s emphases on clinical innovation and an experimental therapeutics model for clinical trial investigations. Depending on the intervention questions being posed, approaches for use in acute, continuation, or maintenance phases of treatment might be evaluated. The program includes studies of strategies for long-term maintenance of clinical benefits, relapse prevention, and enhancement of function/reduction of disability as well as for acute symptom alleviation. Research on the real-world effectiveness as well as efficacy of interventions is supported. Studies may include middle-aged or younger patients as well as older adults when there is a major focus on questions pertaining to the aging process. This program also supports studies of the correlates, predictors, modifiers, and mediators of variability in older adults’ response to behavioral and psychosocial interventions so as to advance understanding of the interventions’ mechanisms of action and to promote personalization of care.
Areas of Emphasis
- Research to develop and pilot-test new or adapted psychosocial treatment approaches, including those designed to improve personalization of interventions relative to the needs and characteristics of older adults or to enhance outcomes in subgroups that benefit insufficiently from existing treatments
- Studies testing the efficacy and effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for producing specific clinical outcomes in late-life disorders
- Research clarifying the key treatment conditions and change mechanisms involved in efficacious psychosocial interventions for late-life mental disorders
Contact
Jovier D Evans, Ph.D.
6001 Executive Boulevard
301-443-1369, jevans1@nih.gov