Abstract

The mission of the National Institute of Mental Health is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure. In consultation with a broad range of experts, the NIMH has identified a set of priorities for stress biology research aimed squarely at creating the basic and clinical knowledge bases for reducing and alleviating mental health burden across the lifespan. Here, we discuss these priority areas in stress biology research, which include: understanding the heterogeneity of stressors and outcomes; refining and expanding the experimental systems used to study stress and its effects; embracing and exploiting the complexity of the stress response; and prioritizing translational studies that seek to test mechanistic hypotheses in human beings. We emphasize the challenge of establishing mechanistic links across levels of analysis to explain how and when specific and diverse stressors lead to enduring changes in neural systems and produce lasting functional deficits in mental health relevant behaviors. An improved understanding of mechanisms underlying stress responses and the functional consequences of stress can and will speed translation from basic research to predictive markers of risk and to improved, personalized interventions for mental illness.

摘要

国立精神卫生研究所的任务是通过基础和临床研究来转变对精神疾病的理解和治疗，为预防，康复和治愈铺平道路。通过与广泛的专家协商，NIMH确定了应激生物学研究的一系列优先事项，旨在建立基础和临床知识库，以减少和减轻整个生命周期的心理健康负担。在这里，我们讨论了应激生物学研究中的这些优先领域，包括：了解应激源和结果的异质性；完善和扩大用于研究压力及其影响的实验系统；拥抱和利用压力反应的复杂性；并优先研究试图检验人类机制假设的翻译研究。我们强调在分析的各个层次之间建立机械联系的挑战，以解释特定和多样化的压力源如何以及何时导致神经系统的持久变化，并在心理健康相关行为中产生持久的功能缺陷。对压力反应和压力的功能后果的潜在机制的更好的理解可以并且将加速从基础研究到风险的预测指标以及对精神疾病的改进的个性化干预的转化。