PITTSBURGH, Oct. 12 - The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) today opened a one-of-a-kind neuroscience research center that will enable scientists to expand their study of a number of severe mental illnesses. In opening the Clinical Neuroscience Research Center (CNRC), the department of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine becomes the first in the nation to develop a specialized facility with the goal of revolutionizing mental health research and patient care.
"WPIC and the University of Pittsburgh's department of psychiatry lead the nation in research funding from the National Institutes of Health," said David J. Kupfer, M.D., Thomas Detre Professor and chairman, department of psychiatry. "The addition of the CNRC not only will keep us on top, but will serve as a resource to attract both talent and additional research dollars to the university and to the city."
The center is a satellite of the UPMC's General Clinical Research Center (GCRC), one of 75 in the nation supported by the National Institutes of Health to provide the infrastructure that allows medical investigators to conduct state-of-the-art patient-oriented research. It is the first GCRC satellite to be housed in a department of psychiatry and will support studies that include patients with severe mental disorders, protocols that require intensive monitoring and supervision on an inpatient basis and research that involves time isolation to study the biological clock.
Such studies will shed light on the effectiveness of medications to ease agitation of dementia, a symptom of Alzheimer's disease that has a profound impact on caregivers and often leads them to institutionalize their loved one; how the drug olanzapine affects delta sleep deficits in patients with schizophrenia; and how the human body clock changes and affects sleep as people age.
"We will be able to use the CNRC's resources to do important research that may lead to solutions for some of the most vexing mental illnesses," said Daniel J. Buysse, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry and program director of the CNRC. "Studies of many mental illnesses would be difficult, if not impossible, to complete without resources such as the GCRC and CNRC."
"The CNRC provides patients with severe mental disorders an environment that is safe and appropriately staffed to meet their needs," said Arthur S. Levine, M.D., senior vice chancellor, Schools of the Health Sciences and dean, Pitt School of Medicine. "The University of Pittsburgh is truly fortunate to have this opportunity to lead the way by being the first to open such a center."
Currently, there are a dozen research studies taking place at the CNRC that will account for about 700 research days this year. The number is expected to grow to more than 1,500 research days the following year.
The CNRC is located on the 13th floor of WPIC. It is composed of five bedrooms, a nursing station, treatment room, equipment control room and patient lounge. There are also two time isolation units with a separate nursing station. Each room has its own bathroom and audio/video monitoring capabilities.
In addition, rooms are equipped to allow researchers to monitor a patient's vital signs and circadian measurements as well as administer mood and performance tests. Two of the rooms have special ports for IV administration of medications and blood sampling so a technician will never have to enter a patient's room.
The CNRC will be staffed by nurses, unit technicians and statisticians.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Tours of the CNRC and interviews with researchers can be arranged by calling Craig Dunhoff at the UPMC News Bureau at (412) 624-2607.