Mental Illness and Addiction Axis

Leaders:
Chawki Benkelfat
Eric Fombonne

Research Themes:
– Mood and Impulse Control Disorders
– Mechanisms of Action of Anti-Depressant Medications
– Clinical Psychopharmacology
– Neuropsychiatric Genetics
– Addiction
– Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Psychiatric taxonomy is based on empirical observation of diseases and not on mechanisms. Unraveling pathophysiology, to design novel therapeutics, is a priority for modern psychiatric research and for the axis. Psychiatric research starts with observations made at the bedside and is subjected to a systematic dissection of mechanisms at the molecular level, often in model organisms. Psychiatric research is therefore best defined as a continuous dialogue between basic and clinical research, relying upon rapid knowledge transfer from the bedside, to the bench, back to the bedside, and so on.