Mental Illness

The Mental Illness topic includes research on the causes, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diagnosable mental illnesses that can result in mild to severe functional impairment. It includes research on psychiatric symptoms due to drugs, injury, or physical and/or biochemical changes to the brain.

Mental illness encompasses mental, behavioral, or emotional disorders with an effect that can range from no to severe impairment. The disorders affect thinking, feeling, mood, and behavior and can be chronic or short-term, acute or mild.

Mental illnesses fall into two categories: Any Mental Illness, which covers all instances of mental illness, and Serious Mental Illness, which is the subset of more severe mental illnesses. Common mental illnesses include anxiety disorders, panic disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Risk factors can be genetic; experiential, such as brain injury or exposure to drugs or toxic chemicals, including alcohol and recreational drugs; or emotional, including isolation or loneliness. Treatment is dependent on the diagnosis and is likely to involve therapy, with escalation to medication and institutional treatment if needed.