Daniel Lapsley, Ph.D., Chairman of the Department of Psychology for Notre Dame University, gives a significant amount of credit to Madison Center, Indiana's largest community mental health agency, for Notre Dame's coup in recruiting two world-class researchers.

Now Notre Dame and Madison Center have created a partnership to collaborate on research that is designed to improve treatment and therapies for mental health patients.

Lee Anna Clark, Ph.D., formerly a professor and collegiate fellow in the Department of Psychology at University of Iowa, and David Watson, Ph.D., also a former psychology professor at UI, and currently editor of the prestigious Journal of Abnormal Psychology, are renown researchers and have individually and jointly published hundreds of articles and books on their areas of research including: personality and personality disorder, temperament, mood, emotion, depression, anxiety and other psychological conditions. Perhaps not surprisingly, they are two of the most cited research psychologists in the world.

"We were impressed by the resources, campus, and diversity of patient services offered at the Madison Center, as well as by the faculty and the leadership from the Psychology Department all the way up through Central Administration at Notre Dame," said Clark.

Clark brings with her a $2 million federal grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. The grant will be applied to her research developing a new approach to assessing personality disorder. She and Watson will be collaborating with Madison clinical staff and conducting much of their research in the Hill Street Building on Madison's campus, which will be renamed the Clinical Science Building.

"We've always had a good relationship with Madison," said Lapsley, "but this expands and evolves our partnership in an exciting direction that can be productive for our research as well as beneficial for physician practitioners and patients at Madison.

"Anything that aligns clinical practice with clinical research will improve the quality of the clinical treatment patients receive. Madison Center will have the opportunity to participate in research and reap the benefits that come from having healthcare providers at the cutting edge of new research, therapies, approaches and treatments."

The Notre Dame/Madison research will focus primarily on surveys, interviews and medical reviews and will be essentially non-invasive, although there may be blood draws required. Only patients who consent will participate, and there will be no compromise to any patient's current treatment. Post-graduate students and other staff will work out of the new Clinical Science Building, expected to officially open next month, further expanding the footprint of Psychology for Notre Dame.

"Patients often get the finest care available when their physicians and caregivers are associated with active research centers," said Lapsley. "We fully expect that to be the case as a result of this new collaboration and partnership."

Source: Madison Center