The Mental Health Clinical Research Center (MHCRC) at Yale is a joint program of the Department of Psychiatry and the Child Study Center. The Yale MHCRC research program focuses on a broad set of integrating themes, that center around a developmental perspective. MHCRC investigators are involved in the study of the pathophysiology and treatment of 5 classes of neuropsychiatric disorders (Tourette's Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Anxiety Disorders and PTSD; Affective Disorders; and markedly influenced by stage in the life cycle. The clinical projects which receive infrastructure support from the Yale MHCRC specifically focus on identification of environmental and genetic risk factors, neural circuitry and neurochemistry, and development of improved therapeutic approaches. The funding of the Yale MHCRC is large devoted to the support of five core facilities: 1) Molecular Genetics and Genetic Epidemiology; 2) Neuroimaging; 3) Developmental Neurochemistry and Psychopharmacology; 4) Clinical Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics; and 5) Administration and General Methodology. Specific project facilities include technology advancement in order to increase the capability of clinical researchers at Yale and elsewhere to make fundamental discoveries relevant to the pathophysiology and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. In addition these core facilities are expected to play a critical role in the training of basic and clinical neuroscientists. An explicit overarching objective of the Yale MHCRC has been and continues to be to extend the knowledge from basic neuroscience to the study of clinical disorders, and to bring new hypotheses and question from clinical research back to the basic laboratory for further investigation.
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