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National Institutes of Health

Silvio O. Conte Centers for Basic Neuroscience or Translational Mental Health Research

NIDA - National Institute on Drug Abuse

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Young adults’ simultaneous use of alcohol and marijuana/cannabis (SAM) is prevalent, increasing, and associated with heavy substance use and risk for substance-related harms. Scant research has focused on intervention programming for SAM use, and effects on use behaviors have been small to non-existent. Mobile app-based interventions are a promising option for delivering real-time intervention in moments of highest risk for young adult substance use. Given their ability to tailor based on features of a day (e.g., situations, motivations, mental health symptoms), app-based interventions are ideal for mitigating SAM-related harms. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and protective behavioral strategy (PBS) interventions are useful in distinct contexts, making them ideally suited for addressing individual determinants of SAM use in daily life. A micro-randomized trial (MRT) that randomizes the delivery of intervention content each day is the ideal, gold- standard approach for identifying whether and when distinct real-time intervention content is most effective. Toward our team’s ultimate goal of developing a novel app-based just-in-time intervention (JIT), we aim to conduct the first MRT with daily-level randomization to MBI, PBS, or no intervention among young adults who engage in SAM use. This R01 application has three aims: 1) To refine and co-curate with young adults digital MBI and PBS content to deploy in real time; 2) To conduct an MRT with daily level randomization (MBI, PBS, no intervention); and 3) To test time-varying moderators of intervention efficacy. We propose two studies within this R01, both with college- and non-college-attending young adults (ages 18-25) who report SAM use and frequent heavy episodic drinking and reside in Oregon or Washington. In Study 1 (n=1000), our team will gather quantitative and qualitative data on acceptability of MBI and PBS content (text, audio, visual) and ideas for improvement. In Study 2 (n=300), we will refine our intervention and then conduct an MRT in preparation for optimizing a future JIT. After completing a digital foundational module, participants will complete a brief daily diary for 45 days on behaviors that occurred the prior day, their current state, and planned behavior. Each day, participants will be randomized to 1 of 3 intervention conditions: MBI, PBS, or no intervention content. On each MBI and PBS intervention day, participants will receive unique intervention content 3 times (late morning, afternoon, early evening) to their mobile device. Our team will measure efficacy of the intervention on 3 same- day outcomes—substance-related harms, SAM use, and level of alcohol use—in addition to identifying features of days (e.g., an individual’s substance use motives) when distinct intervention content was more or less effective. Findings from this work will directly inform and prepare us to launch a JIT to deliver intervention content that changes in response to features of the day, meeting individuals in moments of greatest risk.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents, and rates of suicide in this age group have nearly doubled over the past two decades. However, our ability to predict and prevent suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) is limited, in part due to an emphasis on static, distal risk factors. Emerging research suggests that irregularities in sleep and circadian rhythms—systems which undergo marked change during adolescence— may be promising short-term predictors of suicide risk. However, prior studies have largely relied on retrospective self-report measures, long follow-up intervals, and have often overlooked the contribution of the circadian system, which collectively limits insight into the mechanisms underlying these dynamic processes that may increase suicide risk. This K23 project aims to address these gaps by leveraging intensive longitudinal methods, including actigraphy and collecting a biological indicator of endogenous circadian rhythms in a clinically acute adolescent sample. The proposed study will recruit 100 adolescents hospitalized for STB. During hospitalization, participants will continuously wear wrist actigraphs to measure objective sleep metrics (e.g., total sleep time, sleep onset latency) and provide continuous urine samples to estimate endogenous circadian timing using 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (aMT6s), a reliable indicator of circadian timing. Participants will also complete ecological momentary assessments (EMA) of suicidal ideation throughout their inpatient stay. STB will be reassessed at 1 and 3 months post-discharge, a period of heightened suicide risk. Three aims guide the project: (1) to test whether night-to-night variations in sleep predict next-day SI during hospitalization and STB after discharge; (2) to evaluate whether later circadian timing is associated with higher SI during hospitalization, increased risk for STB post-discharge, and shifts in the timing of SI toward later hours; and (3) to examine whether greater circadian misalignment—i.e., discrepancies between sleep behaviors and the biological clock—predicts increased STB both during hospitalization and after discharge. The proposed training plan complements the Candidate's research plan and will provide the Candidate with rigorous training in actigraphy, biological measurement of circadian rhythms, and advanced longitudinal data analysis. A team of leading scholars will provide expert mentorship in the assessment of adolescent suicide, sleep and circadian biology, and, intensive longitudinal methods, and biostatistics. The project is embedded in a rich, interdisciplinary research environment at Massachusetts General Hospital. By identifying modifiable, objective markers of short-term suicide risk, this research has the potential to advance predictive models and inform clinical interventions, particularly chronotherapeutic approaches. The proposed study will promote the Candidate's long-term goal of establishing an independent program of research focused on leveraging sleep and circadian science to improve youth mental health and reduce STB.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Depression affects millions of individuals worldwide, yet the treatments including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), achieve only moderate success. While the exact mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of TMS remain unclear, they are in part attributed to the induction of neural plasticity. Notably, plasticity is most pronounced during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, particularly in slow-wave sleep (SWS), when synchronized oscillations between the cortex and thalamus may optimize neuroplastic changes. However, currently, TMS is administered in wake-state only. This research gap suggests a new frontier for TMS in depression - stimulating the brain during sleep rather than while awake. By timing TMS to coincide with critical neural events that promote plasticity and systems-level consolidation in NREM sleep, such as thalamocortical sleep spindles, we may enhance TMS efficacy to induce prefrontal plasticity for treating depression. I have developed an approach to deliver TMS during sleep, using automated systems for real-time detection of sleep stages, slow oscillations, and sleep spindles. My preliminary work has shown that intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) of the primary motor cortex (M1) during NREM sleep produces more robust cortical changes than when applied during wakefulness and that spindle-guided iTBS further amplifies these plasticity effects. Building on this, I hypothesize that targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) with iTBS during NREM sleep will result in superior prefrontal plasticity, improving both brain function and behavior in depression. I will first test the effects of intracranial electrical iTBS of dlPFC during NREM sleep on brain activity in neurosurgical patients, using intracranial EEG (iEEG) to measure evoked responses and index plasticity (Aim 1). Next, I will focus on TMS-delivered dlPFC iTBS in depressed patients, using simultaneous TMS-EEG to measure noninvasive brain responses during NREM sleep and pre-sleep wakefulness conditions (Aim 2). Finally, I will investigate real-time sleep-spindle guided dlPFC iTBS in healthy individuals, hypothesizing that targeting events of spindles during SWS will induce even superior prefrontal plasticity and improvements in working memory (Aim 3). For training and professional development while pursuing these aims, I will rely on a mentoring team of world-class experts in invasive and noninvasive brain stimulation, depression, sleep and neural oscillations: Drs. Corey Keller, Josef Parvizi, and Andrea Goldstein-Piekarski, with Drs. György Buzsáki, and Manish Saggar as advisors. This work will deepen our understanding of the neural effects of TMS in the prefrontal cortex and its potential to enhance treatment outcomes in depression. Through this project, I will gain critical expertise in intracranial EEG, direct brain stimulation, pathophysiology of depression and learn how to design, recruit, and execute an independent clinical trial, all of which will prepare me to lead a future independent academic career in sleep-augmented brain stimulation therapies for psychiatric disorders.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis

The purpose of this program is to prevent and reduce alcohol use among youth and young adults ages 12 to 20 in communities throughout the United States.IMPORTANT NOTE: SAMHSA will accept and review only the first 60 complete, successfully submitted, and high-quality applications received via eRA. Once this threshold is met, the submission portal will close, and no further applications will be considered.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis

Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act Grants

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Parental anxiety is a well-known risk factor for youth anxiety during preadolescence, with social experiences contributing to this intergenerational transmission. Parental threat communication, including fearful and negative verbal and nonverbal expressions, is a potential social pathway linking parental anxiety with child anxiety. Our preliminary findings based on trait-based measures support this view, showing that parental threat communication links parental anxiety with children’s anxiety. However, two knowledge gaps remain: 1) whether parental anxiety extends to children's daily emotions in their real-life contexts as mediated via observed parental threat communication, and 2) which neural mechanisms underlie these associations. Parental threat communication can amplify children’s threat sensitivity by emphasizing the salience of threats, given evidence that parents can either buffer or amplify children’s neural responses to threats. Specifically, parents can facilitate children’s Error Monitoring, the brain’s ability to detect mistakes, typically indexed by the Error- Related Negativity (ERN) Event-Related Potential. Heightened error monitoring, particularly under stressful situations, is considered a potential biomarker of anxiety, as it correlates with levels of anxiety and predicts the onset of anxiety disorders. Our preliminary findings indicate that parental traits predict children’s error monitoring under social evaluation, and in young children, increased error monitoring in parental presence has been uniquely associated with anxiety. Although preadolescence is a critical time for the onset of anxiety problems, it is unknown if parental amplification of error monitoring is linked with children’s anxiety and daily emotions during this time. This project will examine (a) whether parental threat communication mediates the paths from parental anxiety to children’s anxiety and daily emotions, (b) whether parental threat communication mediates the link between parental anxiety and children’s error monitoring in parental presence, and (c) whether children’s error monitoring in parental presence is associated with anxiety, and daily emotions in real- life contexts. Children (ages 9 to 12, N = 140) and their parents will complete online questionnaires and participate in a lab visit. Parental threat communication will be observed during a modified TRIER social stress task. EEG will be recorded while children complete a Flanker task twice: in parental presence and alone. EEG data will be analyzed to compute parental modulation of children’s error monitoring. Following the lab visit, children will complete a 10-day Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) procedure to report their daily emotions. This study will make a significant contribution to understanding the parental behaviors and neural processes that link parental anxiety with children’s daily emotions, providing potential targets for family-based interventions. I will also receive in-depth training in (a) EMAs, (b) ERP and EEG time-frequency methods, (c) basic, translational, and affective clinical neuroscience, and (d) professional development in clinical research with youth and families to inform family-focused interventions.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

ABSTRACT HIV stigma, poverty, and racism contribute to high rates of mental health problems and impede treatment for young sexually minoritized men (YSMM) living with or vulnerable to HIV. HIV stigma is associated with poorer HIV medication adherence, and worse mental health, including increased odds of suicidality for youth living with HIV. Inclusive, culturally, and contextually appropriate intersectional interventions can promote access to health services and prevent poor health outcomes including HIV transmission related behaviors. Our project, Social Contact-Based Brief Video Interventions To Reduce Stigma and ImproVe Engagement in HIV Prevention and Care and Mental Health Care for Youth Living with and Vulnerable to HIV (STRIVE), will evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of intersectionally-tailored brief videos to reduce public and internalized HIV stigma (BVHS). Throughout the project we will engage partners from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) (See LOS) as well as our Youth Advisory Board comprised of 5-8 individuals recruited from three existing Community Advisory Boards (CABS): the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) CAB, the ongoing HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) of the Columbia Collaborative Clinical Trials Unit (Columbia CTU) (see Letter of Support (LOS)) and Columbia University HIV Center Consultants (See LOS). Individuals from these groups represent diverse racial backgrounds, adolescent and young adult age ranges, and lived experience with HIV and/or mental health challenges. In Aim 1 we collaborate with our YAB to adapt and then test the efficacy of BVHS to reduce public HIV stigma compared to a control using crowdsourcing platforms with pre/post/30-day follow-up assessments. In Aim 2 we test the efficacy of BVHS to reduce internalized stigma and increase linkage to HIV prevention, HIV care and mental health treatment among a subset of YSMM living with or vulnerable to HIV on social media. In Aim 3 we use a Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR)-informed multi-method analytical plan in order to understand implementation outcomes (e.g., acceptability, feasibility) and inform scale up and dissemination (e.g., identifying key barriers). In Aim 4 we evaluate engagement and treatment-seeking behavior from the NY area dissemination of evidence-based BVHS via Instagram. Through STRIVE we will reduce HIV stigma, facilitated by emotional engagement and identification. This reduction in HIV stigma will mediate proximal outcomes by increasing HIV prevention, HIV care and mental health treatment-seeking among YSMM living with or vulnerable to HIV. This simple, intersectionally-tailored video intervention can potentially reduce duration of untreated HIV and mental health problems and alter public stigma about HIV.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Prior research has documented that social determinants of health such as neighborhood disadvantage and school context are associated with youth mental health3,7,10,11, with neighborhood effects on youth outcomes being mediated by parenting factors4. However, research on the role of these contextual factors in the trajectories of parenting and youth mental health and their relationships has been limited. Additionally, this prior work shows the importance of targeting parenting in family-focused preventive interventions in geographical areas with high contextual risk. While neighborhood economic disadvantage and subjective perceptions of neighborhood are associated with outcomes of preventive interventions32, 34, this prior work has used limited objective measures of social determinants of health, has had inconsistent longitudinal follow-up, focused on limited outcomes, and did not consider how social determinants of health influence intervention engagement. The proposed research will address these limitations with several aims: (1) Determine how neighborhood and educational risk and protective factors are related to youth mental health trajectories across childhood and adolescence and the role of parenting as a mediator between context and youth mental health trajectories, (2) Investigate whether neighborhood and educational risk and protective factors are associated with engagement in and response to the Family Check-Up, a family-focused preventive intervention, and (3) Determine whether findings from the first two aims differ based on urbanicity, race, or ethnicity. The results have implications for clinical practice and research in the development and dissemination of family-focused preventive interventions that promote positive family relationships and youth mental health for all families. The work addresses the NIMH Strategic Plan by aiming to examine trajectories of mental illness, strive for prevention, and advance services to strengthen public health. The proposed research and training plan, which will occur in a supportive, collegiate environment at Case Western Reserve University, will provide the researcher with critical training to support the transition to becoming an independent researcher in developmental psychopathology and prevention science. Specific training goals include (1) Develop a focused understanding of how neighborhood and educational social determinants of health influence parenting and youth mental health, focusing on how this perspective can inform development and dissemination of preventive interventions, (2) gain expertise in leveraging geocoded data to answer questions related to social determinants of health, family functioning, and intervention outcomes, and (3) master the use of complex quantitative methods to analyze longitudinal data. The applicant has assembled a mentorship team with an expertise in the areas which she plans to gain additional experience, and this team will provide superior guidance that will support her increasing independence as a researcher.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

ABSTRACT/PROJECT SUMMARY Anxiety is one of the most common and debilitating comorbidities with ADHD, affecting 57% of youth and 84% of adults, with particularly high rates in girls and women. Despite its widespread prevalence, this co-occurrence is often overlooked and poorly understood, contributing to worse mental health outcomes and greater economic costs than either condition alone. Social processes (i.e., social cognitions and relationships) appear to contribute to the emergence of anxiety in youth with ADHD, but extant work has most often relied on mother-reports in community samples, lacking a multi-informant perspective and consideration of how ADHD and anxiety co-occur across development or in clinical populations. These gaps hinder our ability to provide effective, timely interventions, leaving those at highest risk—especially girls and women—without the necessary support. There is also a notable lack of research on girls and women with ADHD and potential sex differences, despite growing identification of ADHD in girls and women, many of whom are identified with anxiety prior to diagnosis of ADHD. Aligned with Goal 2 of the NIH Strategic Plan (Examine Mental Illness Trajectories Across the Lifespan), this project will address these gaps using three existing datasets with large samples of girls and women. Aim 1 will use ongoing clinical cohort data from a specialized lifespan ADHD clinic to identify developmentally relevant social processes in the co-occurrence of ADHD and anxiety in children and adults, utilizing one of the most well- characterized and ecologically valid samples of girls and women with ADHD to date. Aim 2 will use data from two completed studies and one ongoing study to examine electroencephalography (EEG) measures of social processing as markers of ADHD and anxiety, as well as sex differences, in adolescents—a critical period for anxiety onset and heightened social sensitivity, particularly in girls. Findings will provide developmentally and sex-specific insights into altered social processing as a mechanism for co-occurring ADHD and anxiety, along with neural biomarkers during a critical risk period. With mentorship from experts in lifespan ADHD and sex differences (Babinski), EEG methods for assessing anxiety risk (Pérez-Edgar), measurement-based ADHD care in clinical settings (Waschbusch), and translational analytics/bioinformatics in clinical data (Tuan), this project is designed with an integrated training plan to provide the applicant with real-world clinical research experience, focusing on advanced data analytics to how altered social processing contributes to co-occurring ADHD and anxiety across the lifespan, alongside innovative EEG methods to identify neural markers of these processes. The exceptional mentorship team, coupled with the resources and infrastructure at Penn State College of Medicine, offers the optimal environment to support the applicant’s training goals, foster professional development, and promote growth as an independent ADHD researcher focused on identifying developmentally and sex-specific comorbidity risks in ecologically valid populations across development.

NIGMS - National Institute of General Medical Sciences

PROJECT SUMMARY The social environment can be a source of stress. Social stress is normal, but when persistent, it causes oxidative stress in the brain, which contributes to a variety of mental health and neurodegenerative diseases. Mitochondria could mediate the link between the social environment and oxidative stress as they are a major source of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and play a role in stress adaptation. Previous research has focused on chronic social defeat stress and resulting elevation in glucocorticoid levels, which causes oxidative stress in specific brain regions. Androgens modulate many metabolic responses, yet despite their responsiveness to social stressors and relevance to many age-related diseases, the role of androgenic signaling in regulating oxidative challenges in a social context is understudied. My goal is to study how androgens and social stress influence the regulation of oxidative stress in the brain by leveraging the highly social cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni, a well-established model system for neurogenomics and integrated animal behavior. Male A. burtoni exist as two reversible phenotypes: dominant and subordinate. Dominant males aggressively defend a territory, have high androgen levels, large gonads, and mate with females, while subordinate males are nonterritorial and reproductively suppressed. Territorial defense is physically and cognitively demanding for dominant individuals, while subordinate males experience social suppression and intimidation from higher ranking individuals. Females engage in aggressive competition for shelter and form distinct dominance hierarchies when housed in all-female groups, allowing us to study the effect of distinct social stressors in high- and low-ranking individuals of both sexes. The overarching goal of this five-year proposal is to assess how competition-induced social stress combined with androgen receptor signaling influences the regulation of oxidative balance in the brain. In Research Direction 1, we will define the effect of social stress and androgen receptor signaling on oxidative stress and mitochondrial function across different parts of the brain. To this end, we will integrate social manipulations with androgen receptor pharmacology to study how distinct social and metabolic stressors across the dominance hierarchy influence the regulation of oxidative stress in the brain. In Research Direction 2, we will determine how social experience and androgen receptor signaling influence protection against an acute oxidative insult to the brain using a validated hypoxia-reoxygenation paradigm. Our integrative approach provides an opportunity to discover unanticipated cytoprotective mechanisms in the brain against both chronic and acute stressors. The proposed activities will allow me to develop a research program aimed at dissecting variable strategies used to cope with stressful experiences to maintain organismal homeostasis. My research program may lead to novel insights into intervention strategies or therapeutic targets that reduce oxidative stress and improve effective recovery from oxidative challenges.

NIDCR - National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research

Project Summary/Abstract Psychological stress is an established contributor to bone and tooth loss and impaired bone growth. In the US, more than 50 million people currently experience bone loss while a similar number is afflicted by anxiety (40 million) and/or depressive disorders (16 million). Bone and tooth loss resulting from psychological stress has been observed in all age populations. A murine model of stress, repeated social defeat (RSD), recapitulates key physiological, immunological, and behavioral alterations in humans exposed to psychosocial stress such as bullying and loss of social status. RSD activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system to create a state in which primed, pro-inflammatory monocytes traffic from the bone marrow to the brain to generate neuroinflammation and anxiety-like behavior. In addition, RSD rapidly induces bone loss through increased activity of osteoclasts, and bone growth plate reduction. However, the precise mechanisms by which RSD influences bone have not been identified. Therefore, the overall goal of this project is to exploit a rodent model of psychological stress to better explore the relationships between immunological processes, mental and bone health. This will be accomplished in three Specific Aims. Aim 1 will examine the kinetics of bone loss and growth plate reduction in adolescent male and female mice following a period of RSD. Aim 2 will investigate a central role for osteoclast activation and chemokine (CXCL12) signaling in RSD-induced monocyte mobilization. Aim 3 will investigate mechanisms of RSD-induced growth plate reduction. Outcomes of this project will help achieve the long-term goal of developing more specific interventions to treat psychological stress-related disorders of skeletal physiology.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT This NIH K08 proposal describes a four-year career development training program in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) genomics research. With this research program, Dr. Mo will develop expertise in human genetics, analysis of next-generation sequencing data, and interpretation of somatic variants in non-neoplastic tissue. These skills complement Dr. Mo’s prior research and clinical training and ideally position her to transition to an independent investigator position studying somatic mutations in ASD. Dr. Mo’s mentor for this proposal is Dr. Christopher A. Walsh, a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, an HHMI Investigator at Boston Children’s Hospital, and a leader in the genetics of human neurological diseases. With over 25 years of mentorship experience, Dr. Walsh has an established track record of mentoring trainees to successful academic careers in biomedical research. Dr. Mo will be supported by a scientific advisory team and collaborators with complementary expertise in autism genetics, computational genomics, genotype-phenotype correlations of somatic mutations, and career mentorship. The institutional resources available at Boston Children’s Hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School, are world- class and provide an ideal environment to foster the development of a physician-scientist career. The primary scientific objective of the proposed research plan is to study the role of somatic (post- zygotic) variants in ASD. Dr. Mo’s central hypothesis is that somatic variants contribute to ASD risk. Dr. Mo provides pilot data indicating that somatic single nucleotide variants (sSNVs) are increased in gene exons in ASD probands compared to controls, particularly in highly constrained genes with loss-of-function intolerance. Furthermore, Dr. Mo shows that sSNVs in non-coding gene regulatory regions can be efficiently detected using ATAC-seq, which allows the detection of non-coding sSNVs in larger sample sizes than previously possible using whole genome sequencing. To achieve the research objective, a combination of whole exome sequencing, ATAC-seq, whole genome sequencing, amplicon sequencing, and computational analysis will be used. These strategies will systemically examine two independent, but related, aims: (1) the burden of sSNVs in functionally-relevant genes in ASD compared to neurotypical individuals; and (2) the distribution of sSNVs in non-coding gene regulatory regions in postmortem human brain neurons from ASD and neurotypical individuals. Findings from this study may improve our understanding of the genetic architecture and mechanisms of ASD as well as the genetic diagnosis of ASD in clinical practice.

Administration for Children and Families - OFVPS

The purpose of the Specialized Services for Abused Parents and Their Children is to expand the capacity of family violence, domestic violence, and dating violence service programs and community-based programs to prevent future domestic violence. This is done by addressing the needs of children who have been exposed to family violence, domestic violence, or dating violence in an appropriate manner. Required activities include providing direct counseling; providing developmentally and age-appropriate services to victims and their children; providing advocacy on behalf of victims and their children; and supporting non-abusing parents in their roles as caregivers and in meeting social, emotional, and developmental needs of their children. Where appropriate, services may also work with a non-abusing parent and child together.Optional activities include providing early childhood development and mental health services; coordinating with and providing technical assistance to community-based organizations that serve victims or exposed children and providing additional services and referrals to services for children. These may include childcare, transportation, educational support, respite care, supervised visitation, or other necessary services.

Administration for Children and Families - OFVPS

<p>The purpose of the Specialized Services for Abused Parents and Their Children is to expand the capacity of family violence, domestic violence, and dating violence service programs and community-based programs to prevent future domestic violence.&nbsp; This is done by addressing the needs of children who have been exposed to family violence, domestic violence, or dating violence in an appropriate manner. Required activities include providing direct counseling; providing developmentally and age-appropriate services to victims and their children; providing advocacy on behalf of victims and their children; and supporting non-abusing parents in their roles as caregivers and in meeting social, emotional, and developmental needs of their children.&nbsp; Where appropriate, services may also work with a non-abusing parent and child together.</p><p>Optional activities include providing early childhood development and mental health services; coordinating with and providing technical assistance to community-based organizations that serve victims or exposed children and providing additional services and referrals to services for children.&nbsp; These may include childcare, transportation, educational support, respite care, supervised visitation, or other necessary services.</p>

Veterans Affairs Department

VA is announcing the availability of funds for suicide prevention grants under the Staff Sergeant Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program (SSG Fox SPGP). The SSG Fox SPGP directs efforts to reduce Veteran suicide by awarding grants to community-based organizations to provide or coordinate the provision of primarily non-clinical suicide prevention services, including outreach and linkage to VA and community resources, to eligible individuals and their families. The SSG Fox SPGP furthers VA's public health approach to suicide prevention by combining community-based efforts with linkage to clinical care to prevent Veteran suicide for those inside and outside of VA health care. The goal of these grants is to reduce Veteran suicide risk by improving mental health status, well-being, financial stability, and social support for eligible individuals and their families.

NYS Office of Mental Health

To provide for non-competitive job skills for OMH inpatients

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis

The purpose of this program is to strengthen and expand the state system s ability to provide integrated, evidence-based substance used disorder (SUD) and maternal mental health services for pregnant and post-partum women (PPW) and their families.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis

State Pilot Program for Treatment for Pregnant and Postpartum Women

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

The absence of a clear understanding of mechanisms that drive the symptoms of schizophrenia represents a critical need, hindering our ability to develop effective interventions for this debilitating condition. Bayesian predictive learning offers a formal computational perspective on how the brain processes and integrates incoming sensory information to form higher-level beliefs about the world. Abnormal predictive learning has emerged as a key candidate mechanism to explain core features of schizophrenia, including auditory hallucinations and impaired cognition. Notably, abnormalities occurring at different levels of the predictive learning hierarchy (i.e., low-level sensory perception vs. high-level beliefs about the state of the world) may differ in terms of their stability and their relationships to specific illness features (e.g., auditory hallucinations, impaired cognition). Building upon promising preliminary data and in alignment with the NIMH Strategic Plan, we will use an innovative electroencephalography (EEG) paradigm to characterize specific neural abnormalities associated with aberrant predictive learning in schizophrenia and relationships with specific illness features over time. Ninety adults with schizophrenia, 60 of whom experience active auditory hallucinations at the baseline assessment, will complete an EEG assessment of auditory predictive learning three times over a six-month follow-up period. Thirty non-psychiatric comparison participants will be assessed at baseline only. Stability of the EEG predictive learning indices and associations with auditory hallucinations will be assessed over the follow-up period. Leveraging the specialized scientific expertise and the extraordinary clinical research and participant recruitment infrastructure available at the University of Manitoba and the strong domestic scientific leadership and Veteran representation available at the Minneapolis VA, we anticipate that the project will contribute to the health of the American public by identifying key biological markers and clarifying our understanding of the pathophysiology of this debilitating mental health condition in order to support the development of new treatments.

NINDS - National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

PROJECT SUMMARY Proper cerebellar function is important for many aspects of mental health, as evidenced by the wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders that have been associated with impaired neural processing in the cerebellum, from ataxia and dystonia to schizophrenia, autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To understand how the cerebellum contributes to both motor control and cognitive functions it is necessary to define what kind of inputs it receives, particularly via the massive mossy fiber system, which carries the bulk of all sensory, motor and cognitive signals sent to the cerebellum from the rest of the brain. Furthermore, variations in brain state are likely to alter the information content of mossy fiber inputs and have a major impact on how well and reliably the cerebellum can perform its function. Unfortunately, conventional extracellular recording methods do not offer enough stability and often fail to distinguish signals of mossy fibers from other cell types in the cerebellar cortex. As a result, there is very limited knowledge about mossy fiber activity in cerebellar tasks, and no information at all about state-dependent modulation of mossy fiber responses or which mossy fiber states may be associated with enhanced cerebellar function. The experiments in this application take advantage of Neuropixels probes and a recent semi-supervised deep learning algorithm to overcome previous technical limitations and record for the first time from identified mossy fiber populations while mice perform a cerebellar-dependent eyeblink conditioning task. The analysis of mossy fiber activity, both before and during conditioning trials, is meant to achieve the following goals: (1) to provide new biological insight into the moment-to-moment variability of mossy fiber states, (2) to help define which mossy fiber states are associated with ‘faulty’ vs ‘reliable’ cerebellar function and, (3) to reveal how locomotion and non-invasive stimulation of the prefrontal cortex can be used to steer mossy fibers toward favorable states that are linked to improved performance of cerebellar-driven motor responses. Thus, the findings will have important implications for enhancing cerebellar function, both in health and disease, by developing new therapeutic interventions that can be used to promote beneficial mossy fiber states. Given the well-established role of the cerebellum in the control of movement, it is expected that the findings will impact patients with motor problems most directly. However, cerebellar dysfunction has also been associated with impairments in executive function, abstract reasoning, working memory, high-level language processing and attentional control. To the extent that the neural signature of ‘faulty’ and ‘reliable’ mossy fiber states is similar in regions of the cerebellum involved in these cognitive functions, the aims of this application and the implications for future treatments may apply to them as well.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis

Statewide Family Network

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis

The purpose of this program is to enhance the capacity of statewide, mental health family-controlled organizations to support, train, and mentor family members/primary caregivers. The focus of this program is on family members/primary caregivers who are raising children, youth, and young adults with serious emotional disturbance or co-occurring disorders.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

PROJECT ABSTRACT Identifying individuals likely to respond to a specific intervention is a critical challenge in medical research. In the age of big data, where vast amounts of information are accessible, the potential for personalized interventions based on individual characteristics has become increasingly feasible. However, advancement comes with significant challenges. The sheer volume of data often leads to datasets with numerous factors which might influence outcomes. Moreover, the data may exhibit clustering or repeated measurements, with potentially informative cluster sizes, adding complexity to the analysis. For instance, researchers are interested in understanding why some pregnancies are more vulnerable to maternal immune activation (MIA), which impacts brain and behavioral development in offspring and increases the risk of autism, schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders. However, this task is complex due to the multitude of biomarkers and clustered or repeatedly measured outcomes over time and brain regions. Current statistical tools available are inadequate for handling the complexities of such data, thus impeding the progress of precision medicine. To address this significant gap, this proposal underscores the urgent need for innovative statistical methodologies that can adeptly handle the complexity of clustered and longitudinal datasets with numerous covariates, thereby advancing the field of precision medicine. By developing novel methods building on our preliminary statistical framework, integrating machine learning techniques, rigorously evaluating these methods through simulation studies that mimic real data, and applying these methodologies to real-world longitudinal and clustered datasets, we aim to make significant contributions to this field. Our preliminary simulation results and real-world examples demonstrate both the scientific merit and computational feasibility of these methods. We will apply these newly developed statistical tools to existing datasets as a proof-of-concept to uncover factors that predict susceptibility and resilience to MIA regarding the brain and behavior development outcomes in offspring. The innovative statistical methods developed hold significant promise for identifying biomarkers that elucidate the link between environmental exposure during human pregnancy and brain mechanisms associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. This advancement will assist in identifying high- risk pregnancies and tailoring interventions for offspring at risk due to MIA exposure. Furthermore, these innovative statistical approaches can be adapted to various interventions and a wide range of medical conditions. We will provide free, user-friendly programs and software to enable research communities to apply these methods easily. Consequently, this project presents a unique opportunity to tackle a complex issue in precision medicine and leverage existing datasets for groundbreaking insights.