The future of psychiatric research

Abstract

Psychiatric disorders place considerable burden on individuals and on public health. Funding for research in psychiatry is less than ideal, but even so high quality research is being conducted at many centers. However, these studies have not impacted clinical practice as much as expected. The complexity of psychiatric disorders is one of the reasons why we face difficulties in translating research results to patient care. New technologies and improved methodologies are now available and must be incorporated to deal with this complexity and to accelerate the translational process. I discuss the application of modern techniques for data acquisition and analysis and also the new possibilities for performing trials in virtual models of biological systems. Adoption of new technologies is necessary, but will not reduce the importance of some of the fundamentals of all psychiatry research, such as the developmental and translational perspectives. Psychiatrists wishing to integrate these novelties into their research will need to work with contributors with whom they are unaccustomed to working, such as computer experts, a multidisciplinary team, and stakeholders such as patients and caregivers. This process will allow us to further understand and alleviate the suffering and impairment of people with psychiatric disorders. Keywords: Research, trends, psychiatry. ResumoOs transtornos psiquiátricos são responsáveis por uma significativa carga de doença tanto no nível individual quanto na saúde pública. Mesmo com financiamento abaixo do ideal, muitas pesquisas de alta qualidade vêm sendo executadas em vários centros. Entretanto, o impacto desses estudos na prática clínica é menor que o esperado. A complexidade dos transtornos psiquiátricos é uma das razões pelas quais enfrentamos tanta dificuldade na translação dos resultados das pesquisas para a prática clínica. Novas tecnologias e metodologias aperfeiçoadas já estão disponíveis e devem ser incorporadas para lidar com esta complexidade e acelerar o processo translacional. Discuto, neste artigo, a aplicação de técnicas modernas para a coleta e análise de dados e as novas possibilidades para a realização de testes em modelos virtuais dos sistemas biológicos. A adoção das novas tecnologias é necessária, mas não reduzirá a importância de fundamentos da pesquisa em psiquiatria, como as perspectivas desenvolvimental e translacional. Os psiquiatras que desejarem integrar essas novas tecnologias à suas pesquisas terão que trabalhar com colaboradores com os quais não estão acostumados, como especialistas em informática, equipes multidisciplinares e representantes de partes interessadas nos resultados, como pacientes e provedores de cuidados assistenciais. Esse processo permitirá um avanço no conhecimento e no alívio do sofrimento e da incapacidade das pessoas com transtornos psiquiátricos.

European mental health research resources: Picture and recommendations of the ROAMER project

“…25 of them were explicitly the writers' opinions, these papers were varied and perspective pieces from every area of knowledge, including editorials planning the future of psychiatric research, comments based on real-life experience in training young researchers and cultural competencies and debates on last MHR evolutions. There were arguments for common strategies, users involvement, more funding (especially from private not-for-profit sources), equitably shared between neurosciences and traditional psychiatric approaches, or demands for more capacitybuilding, multidisciplinary approaches, collaborations with the pharma industry, and for a public health paradigm in mental health research as well as bridging the psychotherapeutic and pharmacological research (Nutt, 2005, Erickson and Erickson, 2007, Atkins and Frazier, 2011, Drake, 2013, Owen, 2014, Schachar and Ickowicz, 2014, Okkels et al, 2015, Fitzgerald, 2015, Caldieraro, 2016, Sweetland et al, 2016, Wessely and Nicholson, 2016, Lewis-Fernández et al, 2016, Bhui, 2016, Moss et al, 2016, Bhugra et al, 2017. Papers also made the cases for specific issues such as European psychotraumatology (Şar, 2015), women's and veteran women mental health (Blehar, 2006, Bastian et al, 2013, the development of qualitative research in psychiatry (Crabb and Chur-Hansen, 2009), the inclusion of minorities in research (Forsyth and Stoff, 2009, Jeste et al, 2009, Anand, 2012.…”