Oxford University Professor Husseini Manji, global leader in the development of new medications for patients with serious mental illness discussed recently what needs to be done to make a real difference in their treatment.

Professor Manji and his colleagues  were the recent recipients of the 2023 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health for  the development of the breakthrough therapy esketamine, an antidepressant nasal spray for those patients suffering with treatment resistant depression.

Professor Manji who works closely with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (OH BRC) as Co-chair of the NIHR MH Translational Research Collaboration (MH TRC)  Mental Health Mission spoke at The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ANCP) 2023 Annual Meeting this weekend.

Professor Manji discussed the need for investment into the development of medication for serious mental illness, and his goal of discovering and developing new treatments for serious conditions including psychiatric illness and pain-related diseases where effective treatments are few and far between.

Much of the work towards achieving this goal will be carried out under the NIHR MH TRC Mental Health Mission (NIHR MH TRC MHM), part of the UK governments life science vision to increase capacity in mental health research by providing a sustainable and research-ready environment able to support the pace and scale of mental health research required to address current needs.

The NIHR MH TRC MHM priorities will focus on capacity development and training, data and digital as well as mental health illnesses including children and young people’s mental health, early psychosis and mood disorder.

Emphasis in these areas will be paid to addressing barriers in research and supporting the development of new industrial partnerships, whilst at the same time enabling testing and trialling of treatments in locations across the UK of significant and previously largely unmet need.

Hosted by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, the £42m funding for the NIHR MHTRC MHM approved for phase 1 over 5 years by the  Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), sees a significant portion of the funding going to 2 demonstrator sites in Birmingham and Liverpool to accelerate regional mental health research capacity  and improve service users’ access to clinical trials.

You can read more about Professor Manji and his contribution to the ANCP annual meeting on the Psychiatric Times website.