SMI is an illness that is present in high-income countries. Therefore, there is a (comparative) lot of funding available to research it, and the space is not so neglected as to be an EA funding possibility.
I strongly believe that EA worker time should be spent on improving the treatment of high-income country illnesses like SMI (i.e. it is a high-impact career path that EA should encourage people who are altruistically ambitious to go into, although their salaries should be paid—one way or another—by their country’s government and not by EA funds)
In my opinion SMI research has, on the whole, suffered horribly over the past few decades by an overpropensity towards neurobiological approaches. Quote by NIMH head Thomas Insel: “I spent 13 years at NIMH really pushing on the neuroscience and genetics of mental disorders, and when I look back on that I realize that while I think I succeeded at getting lots of really cool papers published by cool scientists at fairly large costs—I think $20 billion—I don’t think we moved the needle in reducing suicide, reducing hospitalizations, improving recovery for the tens of millions of people who have mental illness.”
Hello! Great questions. My answers:
SMI is an illness that is present in high-income countries. Therefore, there is a (comparative) lot of funding available to research it, and the space is not so neglected as to be an EA funding possibility.
I strongly believe that EA worker time should be spent on improving the treatment of high-income country illnesses like SMI (i.e. it is a high-impact career path that EA should encourage people who are altruistically ambitious to go into, although their salaries should be paid—one way or another—by their country’s government and not by EA funds)
In my opinion SMI research has, on the whole, suffered horribly over the past few decades by an overpropensity towards neurobiological approaches. Quote by NIMH head Thomas Insel: “I spent 13 years at NIMH really pushing on the neuroscience and genetics of mental disorders, and when I look back on that I realize that while I think I succeeded at getting lots of really cool papers published by cool scientists at fairly large costs—I think $20 billion—I don’t think we moved the needle in reducing suicide, reducing hospitalizations, improving recovery for the tens of millions of people who have mental illness.”
If you’re interested in cool recent SMI research, check out AVATAR therapy: https://wellcome.org/insights/articles/avatar-digital-therapy-could-help-people-who-hear-voices