Page 63 - SAMRC Annual Report 2024-2025

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Risk and Resilience in Mental
Disorders Research Unit

Unit director:
Prof. Dan Stein
dan.stein@uct.ac.za

Advancing Research Priorities: first national survey of mental health in university
Strategic Objectives and Impact students. We have become particularly concerned
about problematic internet use in youth, and we
Our work in the SA MRC Unit on Risk & Resilience have initiated a Lancet Commission to address
in Mental Disorders focuses on mental health. There policies related to this phenomenon.
is growing awareness of the high prevalence and
costs of mental health conditions; these conditions Second, we continued our work on a range of
contribute to a significant proportion of the global risk factors for mental disorders, for example, we
and local burden of disease. Furthermore, as we contributed to several exciting publications on
successfully combat infectious diseases, so we can neuroimaging and on neurogenetics during the
expect that the contribution of non-communicable reporting period. In the Drakenstein Child Health
diseases, including mental disorders, will continue Study, we have noted the impact of maternal HIV,
to increase. There is also an important need maternal anaemia, and maternal psychosocial
to transform health services to address mental problems on child neurodevelopment. We hope that
disorders. Our work contributes to generating new this research provides useful targets for intervention.
knowledge in this area, to technology development,
to building capacity, and to translating research into Building Capacity Through
policy and practice, in this area.
Training, Mentorship, and Support
Our work ranges from basic neuroscience, on to Our Unit has a strong focus on capacity development,
clinical research, and from there to epidemiological with significant deployment of funds to support
and public mental health studies; that is from bench student fellowships. We are also keenly aware of
to bedside, and from the clinic to the community. the need for diverse researchers, that represents the
Our research is diverse, ranging from contributions local population and strives to reach that profile.
to nosology and epidemiology, to brain imaging
and neurogenetics, and on to cohort studies and First, this is increasingly seen in the profile of our
clinical trials. This diverse portfolio is appropriate, students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff. Second,
given our focus on building knowledge, technology, examination of the achievements of past mentees
and capacity, to transform services. of the Unit shows that many black researchers who
have been members of our Unit are now national and
Key Milestones and Achievements international authorities in their own right (including
We advanced work on several projects during the experts in posttraumatic stress disorder, substance
reporting period. First, we continued our work on use disorders, neurogenetics, forensic psychiatry
psychiatric epidemiology, to analyse the country's and mental health epidemiology).

SAMRC ANNUAL REPOR T 2024-25 61