The goal of this 5-year proposal is to continue the federally supported activities of a unique Mental Health Clinical Research Center for the multi-disciplinary study of anxiety disorders, anxiety symptoms and related disorders. Interlocking core facilities provide the resources for substantive research conducted both by the MHCRC participants and a wide range of other investigators within the Department of Psychiatry and the New York State Psychiatric Institute and collaborating institutions. The new MHCRC proposal maintains our current core facilities. These include the Research Assessment and Training Unit (Jean Endicott, Ph.D.), the Biological Studies Unit (Jack Gorman, N.D.), the Biostatistics and Data Management Unit (Donald Ross, Ph.D.) the Analytical Psychopharmacology Unit (Thomas Cooper, MA), the Molecular Genetics Unit (Conrad Gilliam, Ph.D.), the Diagnostic and Recruitment Centers for normal volunteers (Jean Endicott, Ph.D) and anxiety patients (Michael Liebowitz, M.D.), as well as our Open Treatment Center (Michael Liebowitz, M.D.). The MHCRC at New York State Psychiatric Institute continues to be a model for the field of psychiatric research. It integrates major support from the city, state, university, a voluntary hospital, foundations, and federal project grants around a stable set of federally funded Core Facilities. The entire mechanism is devoted to research and training in the context of excellent patient care.
