Enhancing Population Impact of Mental Health Research: American Psychopathological Association Annual Meetings - Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section From both NIMH and NIDA, we are requesting R13 funds to support attendance of early-career scientists at the 2024, 2025, and 2026 annual conferences of the American Psychopathological Association (APPA); exclusively from NIDA, we also request support to help cover meeting costs. Since its founding in 1910, the APPA has sought to promote (1) investigation of disorders of mind and behavior, including their biological and psychosocial substrates, and (2) mentoring of junior scientists. This R13’s specific aims entail a significant expansion of our efforts to increase the entry into the mental health workforce of scientists dedicated to all areas of psychopathology research. In the 2024-2025 conferences, we focus on population-wide impacts of mental health and addiction, addressing variability in prevalence, symptom expression and severity, coping and resilience, illness models, and measurement factors; we will also address risk factors that lead to worse mental health outcomes, greater burden of disease, and poorer availability and quality of care. We intend to generate new mental health research goals via state-of-the-art discussion of timely topics and methods in multi-level mechanisms of population impact (2024) and in prevention/treatment interventions and strategies (2025). The 2026 conference will address the fruits of the “affect revolution” on how we understand and intervene in psychopathology: it will focus on emotion regulation/ dysregulation as a cross-cutting process underlying multiple forms of psychopathology and highlight the role of context in the experience and regulation of emotions. Because key factors enumerated in the 2024-2025 meetings on population impact of mental illness/addictions reflect part of individuals’ context, the themes of all three APPA meetings will be linked. The all-plenary format and inclusive environment of the meetings will stimulate vigorous exchanges of information on concepts, methods, findings, controversies, and gaps in knowledge to identify new research directions, foster collaborations, and – especially for junior scientists and clinicians – develop new connections and career opportunities. Activities specifically designed for junior scientists (students, fellows, early-career investigators) include a half-day pre-conference workshop, breakfast roundtables with senior scientists, opportunities for trainees to give oral poster presentations to the entire APPA audience, and a structured mentorship program of junior attendees led by senior APPA members, including from the APPA Council. Funds are requested to cover travel/hotel/registration costs for junior scientists who would otherwise not be able to attend APPA and enhance their engagement in the field of psychopathology research. Additional funds are requested from NIDA to partially cover meeting-related costs related to the aims of the R13.
