Description:

The Center for Development and Mental Health (CDMH) is a Behavioral Research Center at the University of Michigan funded by the National Institute of Mental Health that aims to facilitate longitudinal research on the determinants of mental health across the lifespan.

Mental health issues are increasingly recognized as a hidden morbidity for large proportions of our citizenry. Problems such as depression, stress disorders, aggressive behavior, and substance abuse are found in large proportions of individuals and reduce their ability to lead productive lives, increase their susceptibility to physical illness, and interfere with family life and the development of their children.

The Center is devoted to exploring the course of mental health and illness from infancy to adulthood and identifying the personal and social factors that influence successful passage through life. This information will provide a firmer basis for prevention and intervention efforts to foster mental health in children and adults.

To accomplish this goal the Center will:

1) Establish a resource and information sharing facility for more than 40 University of Michigan research projects on the course of mental illness in children and adults.

2) Facilitate new or continuing research on mental health by establishing a web-site detailing the aims, methods, and results of current longitudinal studies at the University of Michigan. These studies include measures related to the family, school, peer group, and community in addition to ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groupings. Users will find information on research designs and methods appropriate for studying mental health issues in age groups ranging from infants to centarians.

3) Sponsor new research on biological, psychological, and social factors in mental illness with infants, adolescents, and young adults. The initial three studies are investigating the development of stress hormones in early childhood, the effects of poverty on adolescents, and adaptation to a family history of mental illness of young adults.

4) Establish continuing research facilitation forums to advise new investigators on the design and analysis of mental health longitudinal studies. The topics of the initial facilitation groups include quantitative methods, neuroendocrine development, effects of poverty, and the transition to adulthood.

5) Provide Research Apprenticeships to train graduate and postdoctoral students in research on developmental issues in the study of mental health.

6) Sponsor an annual conference on development and mental health issues.