A research project that will analyse data on 160,000 people across 31 countries to plug gaps in understanding about the incidence and life course of mental and substance use disorders has been awarded over $700,000 in funding by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The study involves detailed analyses of the largest cross-national epidemiologic study of mental and substance use disorders ever conducted, the World Health Organisation’s World Mental Health Survey. Professor Louisa Degenhardt (pictured) of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) will lead the project alongside Associate Professor Tim Slade.
Also successful in the latest round of NHMRC funding was NDARC's Dr Natasa Gisev, who was awarded an $310,000 Early Career Fellowship to further her postdoctoral research investigating the burden, risks and harms caused by pharmaceutical opioid use in Australia.
NDARC researchers are co-investigators on two other successful NHMRC project grants. Professor Jan Copeland and Dr Marian Shanahan will work on a randomised controlled trial of cannabinoid replacement therapy (Sativex®) for the management of treatment-resistant cannabis dependent patients. Dr Delyse Hutchison is a co-investigator on a 4-year follow up of offspring born to participants in the Australian Temperament Project, which will assess levels of attachment and other developmental milestones among a group of four-year-old children whose parents have been tracked by researchers since 1982.
All funded projects and fellowships will commence in 2015.
For more information on 2015 funding outcomes see the NHMRC's website.
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Dr Marian Shanahan
Honorary Senior Lecturer
