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Mental health: More than neurobiology

Nature volume 508, page 458 (2014)Cite this article

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The decision by the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to fund only research into the neurobiological roots of mental disorders (Nature 507, 288; 2014) presumes that these all result from brain abnormalities. But this is not the case for many people with mental-health issues and we fear that this policy could stall clinical insight into mental illness for years to come.

There is no consistent biological evidence to support the idea that all mental disorders are due to brain dysfunction. Mood and anxiety, for example, are multifactorial and depend on biological, psychological and environmental factors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leuven, Belgium

    Eiko Fried & Francis Tuerlinckx

  2. University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Denny Borsboom

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  1. Eiko Fried
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  2. Francis Tuerlinckx
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  3. Denny Borsboom
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Correspondence to Eiko Fried.

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Fried, E., Tuerlinckx, F. & Borsboom, D. Mental health: More than neurobiology. Nature 508, 458 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/508458c

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