This study examines the impacts arising from neuroscience and mental health research going back 20-25 years, and identifies attributes of the research, researchers or research setting that are associated with translation into patient benefit, in the particular case of schizophrenia.

This report presents the full set of forward-tracing case studies.

The study combined two methods: forward-tracing case studies to examine where scientific advances of 20 years ago have led to impact today; and backward-tracing perspectives to identify the research antecedents of today's interventions in schizophrenia. These research and impact trails are followed principally in Canada, the UK and the USA. The headline findings are as follows:

  1. The case studies and perspectives support the view that mental health research has led to a diverse and beneficial range of academic, health, social and economic impacts over the 20 years since the research was undertaken.
  2. Clinical research has had a larger impact on patient care than basic research has over the 20 years since the research was undertaken.
  3. Those involved in mental health research who work across boundaries are associated with wider health and social benefits.
  4. Committed individuals, motivated by patient need, who effectively champion research agendas and/or translation into practice are key in driving the development and implementation of interventions.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter One

    Changes in striatal dopamine neurotransmission assessed with microdialysis following recovery from a bilateral 6-OHDA lesion: variation as a function of lesion size

  • Chapter Two

    Synaptic modulation by dopamine of calcium currents in rat pars intermedia

  • Chapter Three

    Differential distribution of GABAA receptor mRNAs in bovine cerebellum

  • Chapter Four

    Identification and distribution of 5-HT3 receptors in rat brain using radioligand binding

  • Chapter Five

    PET scanning and schizophrenia

  • Chapter Six

    Organisation of dopamine D1 and D2 receptors in human striatum: receptor autoradiographic studies in Huntingdon's disease and schizophrenia

  • Chapter Seven

    Auditory P300 in borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia

  • Chapter Eight

    Elevation of human brain D2 dopamine receptors in schizophrenia

  • Chapter Nine

    Expressed emotion research in London, UK, Chandigarh, India and Aarhus, Denmark

  • Chapter Ten

    Northwick park study of outcomes following and characteristics prior to first schizophrenic episodes

  • Chapter Eleven

    Low frontal glucose utilization in chronic schizophrenia: a replication study

  • Chapter Twelve

    Using childhood home movies of adult schizophrenia patients to investigate the development of physical and behavioural abnormalities

  • Chapter Thirteen

    Verapamil in the treatment of chronic schizophrenia

  • Chapter Fourteen

    The effects of neuroleptics on lateralisation in schizophrenic patients

  • Chapter Fifteen

    Specific and non-specific effects of educational intervention

  • Chapter Sixteen

    Psychiatric morbidity of a long stay hospital population with chronic schizophrenia and implications for future community care

  • Chapter Seventeen

    Randomised controlled trial of an inpatient family intervention for schizophrenia and affective disorders: the importance of gender in outcome and treatment response

  • Chapter Eighteen

    Treatment Strategies in Schizophrenia (TSS)

Research conducted by

The project described in this report was supported in Canada by the Graham Boeckh Foundation, Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; in the UK by the National Institute for Health Research; and in the USA by the National Institute of Mental Health. The research was conducted by RAND Europe.

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