Brain Connectivity Imaging Markers To Confirm Diagnosis For Bipolar Vs. Unipolar Depression – A Connectome Approach.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$434,369.00
Summary
Differentiating Bipolar disorders from Unipolar Depression is a major clinical challenge. This misdiagnosis hinders optimal clinical care and has many deleterious consequences such self-harm, increased chances of suicide, poor prognosis, and greater health care costs related to this disorder. This project will provide urgently-needed advance in accurate identification of Bipolar disorders using Magnetic Resonance Imaging and remove one of the key obstacles to accurate diagnosis.
Neuroimaging In Mental Health: The Quest For Clinically Useful Biomarkers
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$437,034.00
Summary
To ultimately improve treatment of mental illness, this research program aims to detect robust and reliable neuroimaging markers that are associated with affective disorders by pooling data from many samples across the world. Moreover, this research aims to develop alternative biological-based classifications of mental illness in young people, and evaluate their clinical value by examining their predictive value for treatment response and disease course.
A Brain-Based Measure Of Anxiety Sensitivity: Validation Of A Novel Intermediate Phenotype With Psychophysiologically-Informed Neuroimaging
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$271,930.00
Summary
Excessive anxiety is disabling, such that people who suffer from a clinical anxiety disorder are often crippled by overwhelming emotional and physical symptoms. We will use sophisticated brain imaging technology to understand how certain brain areas produce feelings of anxiety, including a common fear of arousal related bodily sensations. This work is expected to enhance our basic understanding of the brain basis of anxiety symptoms and may inform new treatment options with biological rationale.
Prospective Imaging Study Of Ageing: Genes, Brain & Behaviour
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$6,465,047.00
Summary
While the burden of dementia in Australia occurs late in life, the underlying brain disease accumulates for decades prior to dementia onset. Disease modifying interventions have the greatest potential to avert later disease burden if introduced during this crucial window, well before the onset of clear cognitive decline. To reduce Australia's future dementia burden, it is thus imperative to identify those Australians at risk of dementia whilst they are still relatively young.
The Prevention, Early Detection, & Effective Management Of Neurocognitive Disorders In The Elderly
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$4,929,014.00
Summary
The unprecedented greying of the world population is posing a major challenge to health care in meeting the needs of older individuals with cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer�s disease. At the same time, drugs are being developed to prevent these disorders, or to treat them effectively. Our proposal is a comprehensive attempt at dealing with the neuropsychiatric aspects of these neurocognitive disorders. Our group is endeavouring to better define the early stages of these disorders, and study ....The unprecedented greying of the world population is posing a major challenge to health care in meeting the needs of older individuals with cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer�s disease. At the same time, drugs are being developed to prevent these disorders, or to treat them effectively. Our proposal is a comprehensive attempt at dealing with the neuropsychiatric aspects of these neurocognitive disorders. Our group is endeavouring to better define the early stages of these disorders, and studying methods of detecting them at an early stage, using the latest neuropsychological and neuroimaging techniques. We wish to investigate new drugs for the prevention of dementia. Much of dementia is not treated early because of lack of training of primary care physicians in identifying dementia, and we are developing methods to deal with this problem. We are also examining the role of cognitive disorders in accidents and suicides in the elderly, and the development of depression. We are determining the role of psychiatric disorders in the care of these patients, and the methods of alleviating the burden of disease. We expect that this research will make a major impact on health policy for these disorders in Australia. We also hope to make our Program the premier centre for training in geriatric neuropsychiatry.Read moreRead less
Regenerative Neuroscience Strategies For Brain Ageing And Dementia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,079.00
Summary
Dementia is the pre-eminent medical challenge of our times as it affects 34 million individuals and will quadruple by 2050. This research therefore aims to develop new preventative and therapeutic strategies for dementia. Seven different studies are proposed, ranging from new stem-cell treatments for testing in rodents, to human clinical trials looking at the preventative effects of physical and mental exercise. These are linked by a central idea of boosting the brain’s neuroplasticity.
Centre For Clinical Research Excellence In Anxiety And Neuroscience
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,007,200.00
Summary
This Centre will bring together Australia's leading anxiety and neuroscience researchers to develop, evaluate, and disseminate better treatments of anxiety. Epidemiological studies indicate that anxiety disorders are common, with lifetime prevalence estimated to be as high as 15% (1). These disorders share the features of excessive physiological arousal in response to feared stimuli, and this leads to pervasive avoidance that has a debilitating impact on people's lives. In addition, anxiety is o ....This Centre will bring together Australia's leading anxiety and neuroscience researchers to develop, evaluate, and disseminate better treatments of anxiety. Epidemiological studies indicate that anxiety disorders are common, with lifetime prevalence estimated to be as high as 15% (1). These disorders share the features of excessive physiological arousal in response to feared stimuli, and this leads to pervasive avoidance that has a debilitating impact on people's lives. In addition, anxiety is often present as a co-morbid feature of other major disorders, such as schizophrenia, substance use, and depression. Anxiety is one of the world's major health burdens; it costs $44 billion per year in the United States. Health agencies around the world are now putting unprecedented resources into understanding the neural bases of anxiety and its reduction. Building on recent advances in the neuroscience of anxiety, the Centre will expand the capacity for neurotransmitter modulation during therapy to reduce anxiety disorders. By extensive training programs with community clinicians, the Centre will conduct large-scale community trials to assess effectiveness of new approaches. The Centre will foster a new generation of neuroscience researchers and clinicians who are skilled in translating basic science findings into clinical practice.Read moreRead less
Optimising Current Therapeutic Approaches To Schizophrenia: The OPTiMiSE Consortium
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,016,659.00
Summary
Despite modern treatments advances (medications and psychological treatments), the prognosis of schizophrenia has only improved marginally and is individually variable. The OPTiMiSE Consortium, consisting of leading experts in schizophrenia research across Europe and a group in Australia, will commence a 5-year research program world-first in scale and scope. We will investigate the biological markers related to treatment response in over 1000 individuals with recent-onset schizophrenia. Schizop ....Despite modern treatments advances (medications and psychological treatments), the prognosis of schizophrenia has only improved marginally and is individually variable. The OPTiMiSE Consortium, consisting of leading experts in schizophrenia research across Europe and a group in Australia, will commence a 5-year research program world-first in scale and scope. We will investigate the biological markers related to treatment response in over 1000 individuals with recent-onset schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a chronic disease and despite modern medication and psychological treatments the outcome is highly variable and often poor. The Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre is part of the European based OPTiMiSE Consortium, the largest ever research program evaluating why individuals with schizophrenia vary in response to different medications. We will examine what characteristics predict which drugs are most helpful to 120 individuals with first episode schizophreniaRead moreRead less