Center for Mental Health Research on AIDS
Overview
The Center for Mental Health Research on AIDS supports domestic and international studies to: develop behavior change and prevention strategies to reduce the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs); develop and test interventions to reduce the neuropsychiatric morbidity associated with HIV infection; clarify the impact of using new biomedical technologies (e.g., rapid testing, vaccines, microbicides) on HIV risk behaviors; clarify the pathophysiology of HIV CNS infection and associated motor/cognitive disturbances; identify the role of couples, families, and communities in preventing and adapting to HIV/STDs; develop therapeutic agents to prevent or reverse the effects of HIV on the CNS; and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of mental health services relevant to HIV infection and people living with HIV and co-occurring mental illness.
Director
Ellen L. Stover, Ph.D.
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 6217, MSC 9621
301-443-9700, estover@mail.nih.gov
Deputy Director
Dianne M. Rausch, Ph.D.
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 6218, MSC 9619
301-443-7281, drausch@mail.nih.gov
Areas of Emphasis
- Clarify the impact of new biomedical technologies (e.g., microbicides, vaccines, rapid tests, genetic advances) on HIV risk behaviors.
- Foster dissemination, translation, and operational research on ways to implement and enhance long-term maintenance behavior change.
- Promote the global adoption of primary preventive interventions.
- Identify molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying HIV-associated dementia, and develop therapeutic agents to prevent or treat the dementia.
- Identify host and HIV viral genetics that render susceptibility or protection to neuronal dysfunction.
- Identify/characterize HIV-associated cognitive or motor dysfunction and assess it in the context of mental illness and HIV-associated comorbidities.
