Press Releases
Child Mind Institute Researchers Receive Prestigious Award from National Institute for Mental Health
Team is recognized with the 2020 NIMH Director’s Award for the development of CRISIS, an innovative COVID mood study
New York, NY – Researchers from the Child Mind Institute are part of a team that has been recognized by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) with a prestigious Director’s Award for their development of Coronavirus Health Impact Survey (CRISIS), a mood survey in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The award was presented today by NIMH Leadership during the 2020 NIMH Virtual Director’s Award Ceremony.
Through CRISIS, the Child Mind Institute team is studying the risk factors for negative mental health outcomes – as well markers for increased resilience — during the pandemic for children and adults, to inform more effective interventions for the remainder of the pandemic and future crises. In a preliminary study, the researchers used CRISIS to gather data from 5,646 participants in the U.S. and the U.K. Their findings suggest that pre-existing mood states, perceived COVID risk, and lifestyle changes are strongly associated with negative mood states during the pandemic in adults, parents, and children.
“This is an impressive and well-deserved honor for our research team, whose development of the CRISIS survey is already yielding important insights,” said Child Mind Institute President Harold S. Koplewicz, MD. “It’s critical that even as we help young people navigate the unprecedented challenges this pandemic is posing, we also learn how we can give them better tools to handle crises – both individual and collective — moving forward.”
The research team being recognized includes the primary creators of the CRISIS, which included Kathleen Ries Merikangas, Ph.D. (Distinguished Investigator at the NIMH and co-chair of the Child Mind Institute’s Scientific Research Council), Michael P. Milham MD, PhD (Vice President of Research and Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Scholar at the Child Mind Institute) and Argyris Stringaris, MD, PhD, FRCPsych (Senior Investigator, NIMH) and their NIMH research teams including Ioanna Douka, MD (Special Volunteer), Julia Dunn (Post bac trainee), Diana Lopez (Post bac trainee), Dylan Nielsen (Staff Scientist) and Diana Paksarian, PhD (Research Fellow) along with members of the Child Mind Institute team that supported its evaluation including: Aki Nikolaidis, PhD (Research Scientist), Lindsay Alexander (Research Operations Manager), Jacob DeRosa (Research Site Supervisor), Irene Droney (Research Projects Coordinator) and Minji Kang (Clinical Data Analyst).
Aside from funding from the NIMH Intramural Research Program, funding for follow up of the CRISIS Survey has been generously supported by a grant from Morgan Stanley. The Child Mind Institute is a founding member of the Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children’s Mental Health.