Mental Health Research Network receives grant to create data resource for mental health researchers

NIH grant establishes national Network based in 10 health systems

Ask anyone: There must be better ways to treat mental health problems. Treatment hinges on research. But traditional research is slow-and so expensive that it can't even ask many pressing questions in mental health. And findings from academic settings may not apply to patients or clinicians in the real world of health care.

That's why the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is funding the Mental Health Research Network. It's a population-based effort to make mental health research faster, less expensive, and more relevant to the real world. This network will become a resource for mental health researchers who want to make prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and dissemination of results more effective and efficient.

NIMH has awarded approximately $10.5 million over three years to a multi-site team led by Gregory E. Simon, MD, MPH, at Group Health Research Institute. The grant is to create the Network: a diverse data resource for mental health researchers who want to make prevention, diagnosis, treatment, dissemination, and policy more effective and efficient. To do so, the Network will speed and streamline the research process itself.

To boost its statistical power, the Network will draw on extensive electronic medical data from 10 not-for-profit health care systems that are part of the HMO Research Network. Together, these 10 health systems include 10 million people in 12 states.

"By studying these diverse populations, we hope to learn more quickly and efficiently what causes mental disorders and what works-and what doesn't-in mental health care," said Dr. Simon, a Group Health psychiatrist and Group Health Research Institute senior investigator. "We hope to break down the barriers between research and real-world health care delivery-and take what we learn about what works best for which patients and apply it to tailor care better to individual patients,"

Mental health disorders affect people from every age, ethnic, and socioeconomic group. Finding the best methods to detect, treat, and prevent these disorders will require large studies on populations that are as diverse as are the people with the disorders.

These 10 systems are involved in the Network:

• Group Health Research Institute at Group Health Cooperative: Gregory Simon, Robert Penfold, Carolyn Rutter, Leo Morales, and Belinda Operskalski
• Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Boston, MA: Stephen Soumerai, Darren Toh, Jeanne Madden, Martin Kulldorff, Christine Lu, and Donna Rusinak
• HealthPartners Research Foundation at HealthPartners in Minneapolis, MN: Leif Solberg, Robin Whitebird, Nancy Sherwood, and Andrew Nelson
• Center for Health Services Research at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI: Brian Ahmedani, Justin Coffey, and David Nerenz
• Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado in Denver: Arne Beck, David Price, and Marsha Raebel
• Center for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Georgia in Atlanta: Robert Davis, Ashli Owen-Smith, and Lynn Padgett
• Center for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii in Honolulu: Ameena Ahmed and Beth Waitzfelder
• Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland: Enid Hunkeler, Lisa Croen, and Bruce Fireman
• Center for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Northwest in Portland, OR: Frances Lynch and Greg Clarke
• Department of Research and Evaluation at Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena: Karen J. Coleman and Virginia Quinn

Health system leaders and external researchers will be involved in identifying research questions and implementing research findings into practice. The first four Mental Health Research Network projects will study:

• how diagnoses of autism vary
• brief psychotherapy for depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period
• variations in patterns of care for depression and bipolar disorder
• how Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety warnings about certain types of anti-depressants affect prescription patterns and rates of attempted suicide

Future research will use existing computerized records to get information on the effectiveness and safety of different mental health services. The Network will also help identify participants for clinical trials of mental health treatments so that clinical trials will be more efficient and more representative of the U.S. population.

Some of the funding for the Mental Health Research Network is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA, commonly known as the 2009 stimulus package or recovery act.