CHILD PSYCHIATRY INTERVENTION RESEARCH CENTER

This is an application for a Child Psychiatry Intervention Research Center (CPIRC) at New York State Psychiatric Institute. The CPIRC comprises: 1) The Central (Administrative) Core (Director: David Shaffer, M.D.) will perform administrative functions for all Cores, distribute small grants, oversee protocols to insure consumer-sensitive practice, insure coordination between the locally based NIMH Research Unit for Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP), the Ruane Early-Diagnosis Center, and if funded the Anxiety Disorders IRC, will maintain a local Area Network (LAN) to serve all CPIRC users; 2) a Clinical Core (PI: Rachel Klein, Ph.D.) will recruit and screen subjects for treatment studies and will provide post-protocol care; 3) a Psycho-therapy Core (PI: Myrna Weissman, Ph.D.) will provide training and archival materials for manualized psychotherapies; 4) a Biostatistics, Measurement, Effectiveness Evaluation Core (PI: Andrew Leon, Ph.D.) will provide consultation on biostatistics, and research design, that will advise investigators on planning and conducting of effectiveness studies that will advise and train research staff on measurement choice and will manage and customize entry into a uniform database; and 5) a Psychopharmacology Core (PI: Laurence Greenhill, M.D.) that will monitor safety parameters, provide manuals to standardize psychopharmacology studies, will provide training and will facilitate pharmacological and basic science studies related to treatment response. Over the past four years, there has been a Child Psychiatry CRC that performed some but not all the treatment related functions that will be carried out by the CPIC that CRC screened over 1,698 individuals and referred over 718 to treatment protocols, provided consultation on 75 research projects, provided over 200 consultations related to publications and research-grant applications, and given courses whose combined audiences numbered in the hundreds. CRC users were productive: over a 4 year period wrote 367 publications that related to Center activities. This flourishing research environment, will be maintained by the CPIRC. The CPIRC will start life with a large number of experienced researchers and 28 funded treatment protocols. It will provide the infrastructure necessary for successful recruitment, sophisticated design badly needed in a field characterized by the widespread use of medical and psychotherapies of unproven value and safety for children and teens.