From Concept to Clinic: Using Translational Science to Understand and Develop Treatments for Emotional Disorders Across the Lifespan
Dalgleish, T.
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, United Kingdom
Translational research is all about applying ideas, insights and discoveries generated through basic scientific enquiry to the treatment or prevention of mental health problems, and the reciprocal process of integrating clinical insights into the basic science endeavour. This talk presents research from our group highlighting different facets of research translation and illustrates them with diverse examples ranging from: using Tarantulas in tandem with brain imaging to understand how exposure therapy might be working; developing the treatment of PTSD in children from the laboratory through to randomized clinical trials; and understanding the mechanisms of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy to prevent depressive relapse in adults. A number of pitfalls in translational research are then identified and potential ways to overcome them are considered. References