Office of the Clinical Director

The National Institute of Mental Health Division of Intramural Research Program (NIMH IRP) conducts research into the mechanisms of and treatments for a range of mental illnesses and symptoms including schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrum disorders, mood disorders, anxiety, childhood disorders, sleep, and genetic epidemiology. Research is also conducted with volunteers without mental illnesses to better understand brain cognition, perception, and immune and physiologic processes. The NIMH IRP conducts clinical studies designed to expedite the exchange of information between scientists and clinicians so that basic findings can be moved more quickly from the laboratory setting to the treatment of patients at the bedside. The clinical research program includes tenured and tenure-track clinical investigators, staff clinicians, fellows, and other trainees in more than a dozen clinical Branches and free-standing Sections.

The mission of the Office of the Clinical Director (OCD) is to ensure that research participants  participating in NIMH protocols receive high quality and safe clinical care. The OCD is responsible for the following: oversight of the clinical care provided to our research participants, participant and patient safety and quality assurance, management of the NIMH protocol review process through the Institutional Review Board (IRB), clinical research training, regulatory oversight and compliance monitoring, , authorization of medical staff credentials, and allocation of Clinical Center (CC) resources. In addition, the OCD provides clinical consultation services to research patients across various Institutes in the Clinical Center. The OCD staff also provide mental health and well-being expertise to participants, patients, staff, and trainees across the Clinical Center and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).