Washington, D.C.--Congressman Eliot Engel announced that the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research has been awarded a Mental Health Research Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. The grant is for $504,548 and is for the study of Lithium Effects on Tetrahydrobiopterin Deficit in GHC1-Associated Bipolar Disorder.

Rep. Engel said, “The work being done by the Nathan Kline Institute is vital in the research and development of cures for countless diseases and afflictions currently millions of Americans. Specifically, their work fighting schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and manic-depressive illnesses have produced real results and this grant should go a long way in helping people suffering from bipolar disorder.”

Rep. Engel is a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health and was instrumental in securing the grant for the facility.

The 11-term Congressman added, “I strongly support our medical research facilities and investing in scientific research. The more breakthroughs discovered by our scientists, the better our health care system. With investments in science and reforms to the system, we can see other advances for Americans struggling with their health care costs and for businesses struggling to succeed.”

Although it often runs in families, anyone can have bipolar disorder, including children and teens. The disorder most commonly develops in late adolescence or early adulthood, affecting approximately six million American adults or about three percent of the population age 18 and older in any given year. Seventy-five percent of all serious psychiatric disorders, like bipolar disorder, manifest before age 24.

“The causes of bipolar disorder still aren’t clear but psychiatric research is focused on trying to predict who will get the illness and how it can be best prevented and treated,” says Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, Director of the Nathan S. Kline Institute (NKI) and Professor and Chair of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine. “Dr. James Clelland’s cutting-edge research in genetic neuroscience is an important part of a broader effort at NKI to understand the causes of serious mental disorders and to develop improved interventions.”