PTSD, major depression (MD) and substance use disorders (SUDs) are major public health problems because they are prevalent, increased risk for health morbidity and mortality, have onset early in life, and are infrequently treated using evidenced-based treatments. Traumatic stressors such as child maltreatment, interpersonal violence, disasters, and terrorism increase risk of PTSD, MD, and SUDs, but most individuals exposed to traumatic stressors are resilient, highlighting the importance of research that uses genetic, neurobiological, and psychosocial risk and protective factors to determine who is likely to be resilient and who is likely to need treatment. Effective treatments for these disorders have been developed, but they are not effective for everyone, and they are rarely used in clinical practice. This highlights the need for researchers from basic science who can do translational research from basic science to treatment development and from treatment research to implementation in clinical practice. This research training grant will provide trainees with mentorship, coursework, seminars, mental health treatment experiences, and research experiences they need to do competent, interdisciplinary, translational traumatic stress research. The training program is housed in the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center (NCVC) in the Department of Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. Three predoctoral and four postdoctoral fellows will be trained each year. Postdoctoral fellows will receive two years of training. All fellows will be mentored by NCVC faculty, and postdoctoral fellows will have a basic or basic clinical science co-mentor. Co-mentors include M.D.s and Ph.D.s with a broad range of scientific expertise including behavioral genetics, neurobiology, neuroimaging, child psychiatry, substance abuse, and services research. One postdoctoral fellow is designated for an MD or psychiatrist, and the remaining slots will be for scientist- practitioner clinical psychologists. The NCVC has of major funded projects that include national epidemiological studies of exposure to traumatic stressors and risk of mental disorders, gene-environment interaction studies of resilience following exposure to disasters, treatment development and randomized clinical trials (RCTs), and projects addressing translation of effective treatments to clinical practice. This application seeks 5 years of continued funding for a 19 year old effective training program.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 168 publications
