VA Researching for You
Mental Health
Mental health conditions are common in the United States. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 43.8 million adults aged 18 or older had a mental illness in 2014, representing about 18 percent of all U.S. adults—and this figure did not include substance-use disorders.
VA offers a wide range of mental health services to Veterans. The goal of VA mental health care is to support recovery and enable Veterans who experience mental health problems to live meaningful lives in their communities and achieve their full potential.
VA’s Major Mental Health Accomplishments:
• 1941: Set up a research lab at the Northport, New York, to conduct clinical and biomedical research in neuropsychatric disorders
• 1989: Created the National Center for PTSD to address the needs of Veterans and other trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• 1997: Identified a gene associated with a major risk for schizophrenia
• 2003: Determined that while atypical antipsychotic drugs vary in cost, there is limited evidence of differences in effectiveness
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Below is a news story that illustrates VA’s commitment to advancing technology and research initiatives to benefit our nation’s Veterans.
Dr. Leonardo Tonelli (right) and research assistant Brent Stewart are conducting mouse studies to learn about the role of the immune system in mental health. (Photo by Mitch Mirkin)Tackling trauma, depression via the immune system
If you cut your finger or stub your toe, or a virus enters your body, your immune system responds. A fierce army of white blood cells mounts an attack.
How about when emotional trauma or depression strikes? We may not think of the immune system as part of the healing process.
But that thinking is outdated. Just ask experts like Dr. Leonardo Tonelli, of the Baltimore VA Medical Center and the University of Maryland. A psychoneuroimmunologist, he studies the link between the nervous system—mainly the brain—and the immune system.
Tonelli believes the immune system may be a potent tool for treating depression and post-traumatic anxiety, or even full-blown PTSD, in Veterans. He is conducting experiments in mice that he hopes will spawn new therapies—such as rebuilding or reshaping a patient’s reservoir of T cells, which are subsets of white blood cells. The “T” is for the thymus gland, where the cells mature. Read more..
