The Depression Center and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, a national mental health support and advocacy organization, have announced a partnership to create an information clearinghouse that will help connect individuals with mood disorders to research opportunities.
Nearly 10 percent of the adult population — more than 20 million Americans — has a mood disorder such as depression or bipolar disorder. Mood disorders are highly treatable, but many barriers remain to early detection, treatment and prevention. Recruiting participants to research studies can be difficult due to the stigma associated with these illnesses.
Volunteers living with depression and bipolar disorder are essential to research across disciplines from psychiatry and psychology to kinesiology and obstetrics and gynecology, where work is underway to further the understanding of the contributors to these disorders and to develop new treatments.
“To generate new knowledge, we need partnerships between those studying various diseases and their treatments, and those with the disorders who share the goal of developing better diagnoses and treatments,” says Dr. John Greden, executive director of the Depression Center. “Knowledge heals.”
Some studies only receive one-third of the desired participants, says Patricia Deldin, an associate director of the Depression Center, professor in the Department of Psychology and associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry.
“The more research participants we have, the better the chance for major breakthroughs in understanding and treatment,” Deldin says.
Now in its formative research phase, the Depression-Bipolar Consumer Research Clearinghouse will create a unique forum for communication between consumers and investigators while raising awareness about depression and bipolar research. The Clearinghouse will feature Web-based resources and a toll-free hotline to connect volunteers with research opportunities at the university and, in the future, at other research institutions.
Developers hope to launch the Clearinghouse to the general public in mid-to-late 2011.
