NIMH Director, Thomas Insel, discusses the history of treatment development over the past fifty years. What caught my eye:

Given the industry’s lack of innovation over the past three decades and the history of aggressive marketing of psychiatric medications, some might understandably say, “good riddance.” But by almost any measure we need better treatments, both medications and psychotherapies, for the entire range of mental disorders. It is never a positive sign for those with mental illness when thousands of scientists and millions of dollars are shifted away from research on these disorders.

What can NIMH do about this? Without the large budget and the scientific expertise for medication development, how can NIMH compensate for the pharmaceutical industry’s shift in focus? Is it appropriate for NIMH to invest public dollars in an area that many pharmaceutical companies have deemed too risky for investment? In the next blog, I will suggest that what many are calling a “crisis in medication development” may be an opportunity for NIMH innovation. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/index.shtml