Applied mental health research
Research to increase the provision and effectiveness of mental health treatments
This profile is tailored towards students studying biological sciences, economics, health sciences, psychology, and sociology, however we expect there to be valuable open research questions that could be pursued by students in other disciplines.
Why is this a pressing problem?
Mental illness causes immense suffering around the world, affecting an estimated 10% of the global population. This report by the Happiness Research Institute shows that depression and anxiety, the most common mental illnesses, are associated with reductions in self-reported life satisfaction greater on average than the reductions associated with stroke, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and lung disease. The decrease in psychological wellbeing caused by mental illness is often compounded by costs to economic, social and physical wellbeing – for example, mental illness increases the likelihood of an individual experiencing unemployment, social stigma and chronic physical ill health. In some countries, people who are mentally ill are likely to suffer severe human rights abuses – for example being chained or incarcerated – rather than receiving treatment.
Most people with mental illnesses don’t receive treatment, which is a particularly serious issue in LICs, where government expenditure on mental health amounted to just US$0.02 per person in 2017. Therefore, research to identify the most effective existing treatments in these settings seems like a priority. At the same time, the best current treatments would not be enough to cause the burden of mental illness to disappear, even if all sufferers were able to access them. As mental health research is also relatively neglected – the level of research funding is disproportionate to the burden of poor mental health in every country – it seems like further research would be valuable to develop new and more effective treatments.
This report from the Happier Lives Institute, on which the suggestions for further research in this profile are based, suggests ‘identifying the causes of mental illness and advancing the scale-up of existing interventions, as well as developing new treatments’ as promising directions for further research.
See the talk below for an exploration of some of the best ways we currently know of to improve wellbeing.
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Research papers
Bickman, Leonard (2020) Improving Mental Health Services: A 50-Year Journey from Randomized Experiments to Artificial Intelligence and Precision Mental Health, Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research
Donaldson, Clare, et al. (2021) Using Subjective Wellbeing to Estimate the Moral Weights of Averting Deaths and Reducing Poverty
McGuire, Joel & Michael Plant (2021) Psychotherapy: Cost Effectiveness Analysis, Happier Lives Institute
World Mental Health Report: Transforming Mental Health for All (2022), World Health Organisation
Take a look at this reading list from the Happier Lives Institute to find further reading.
Organisations
The Happiness Research Institute is a think tank exploring why some societies are happier than others, with the aim of informing decision-makers and making subjective well-being part of the public policy debate.
The Happier Lives Institute uses subjective wellbeing data to identify problems and find evidence-based ways to solve them.
The Mental Health Innovation Network is a community of mental health researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, service user advocates, and donors from around the world sharing innovative resources and ideas to promote mental health and improve the lives of people with mental, neurological and substance use disorders.
The mental health team at Wellcome (one of the world’s biggest philanthropic foundations) funds a variety of research on mental health.
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This list of courses may be helpful if you’re looking for a PhD program. This MSc Global Mental Health is particularly recommended.
The Global Mental Health Unboxed newsletter is a useful source of events, vacancies, courses and new research.
Contributors
This profile was last significantly updated 26/08/2022. Thanks to Barry Grimes for feedback on this profile. All mistakes remain our own. Learn more about how we create our profiles.
