Mental health conditions, like anxiety and depression, currently affect about one in five people nationwide, making them one of the leading causes of disability. While diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions have advanced greatly in recent decades, many questions remain about how to best help all people thrive and get great mental health care to everyone who needs it.
To answer those questions, a record-breaking 385 registrants from 33 departments across the University of Utah (the U) came together at the 2025 Mental Health, Brain, and Behavioral Science Research Day, where attendees started collaborations, shared cutting-edge results, and helped advance mental health across Utah and beyond.
"Our goal today is to celebrate groundbreaking mental health research and facilitate partnerships and collaboration across campus, academia, and industry," said Adrian Rothenfluh, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at the U, in opening remarks.
Helping moms thrive
One major focus of the symposium was maternal mental health. It's an urgent issue: about half of Utah women report having symptoms of anxiety or depression before, during, or after pregnancy, and poor mental health is a major contributor to maternal death. Speakers shared progress in improving maternal mental health via numerous research-based interventions, including online, on-demand mental health resources; outreach to at-risk communities; and new technology that stimulates the brain to alleviate perinatal depression.
Speaker Bob Silver, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the U, said that maternal mental health has immediate and wide-ranging consequences. "With perinatal depression and anxiety, there is increased risk of unhealthy behaviors. This leads to an increased risk of profound health consequences for the physical health of mom and baby. It also has a huge economic burden on society."
Pregnancy outcomes themselves can have an enormous impact on mental health, Silver said. Experiencing a stillbirth dramatically increases the risk of depression and PTSD symptoms for years after. And even if the pregnancy itself is healthy, the birth experience can increase the risk of depression if patients feel like they were not heard. Despite the serious nature of the talks, the atmosphere was one of problem-solving. "Maybe we can do collaborative research in maternal mental health," Silver invited the audience. "I'd love to have more conversations about any of these research directions."
Fighting the addiction epidemic
Substance use disorder, which includes alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder, is a serious disease that can impact every aspect of a person's life. But solutions for recovery exist, and researchers across the U are working to find them. Discoveries spanned the gamut from identifying the genes involved in addiction-a critical step to finding new therapies-to learning how clinics tailored to those experiencing homelessness can better integrate care for veterans with substance use disorders.
Session keynote speaker Adam Gordon, MD, MPH, professor of epidemiology in the SFESOM and section chief of addiction medicine at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, emphasized that despite the stigma that persists around addiction, it's a disease like any other. Importantly, rigorous research has shown that addiction is treatable with medication. "We can provide medications that are very effective and extremely beneficial for addiction," Gordon said. "Medications for opioid use disorder are the gold standard, best-evidenced practice."
Gordon emphasized that better ways of helping people with addiction are fundamentally powered by research, which is how people learn which treatments work and which don't. "We've moved toward harm reduction and patient-centered care," he says. "New models are occurring, new ways of thinking are occurring, and research really drives the bus here."
The collaborative program that Gordon directs, the Program for Addiction Research, Clinical Care, Knowledge, and Advocacy (PARCKA), also has a strong focus on communicating scientific results to health programs and clinics to shift clinical care toward the best, most effective evidence-based practices.
Supporting lifesaving research
Many of the day's talks focused on empowering scientists with the resources they need to continue their lifesaving work. To discover the foundations of mental health and develop therapies to help people thrive, researchers need funding, and in a changing funding climate, many researchers are exploring a wide range of funding options. Many of the talks discussed these options, from founding or participating in startups to seeking out resources from private foundations.
Speakers acknowledged that the current funding climate is challenging and uncertain. But they also emphasized that solutions are possible if mental health researchers stay flexible and keep doing great science. "Good science makes good medicine, and good medicine makes good business," said session keynote speaker David Bearss, PhD, CEO of Halia Therapeutics and a former researcher at the U. "At the end of the day, the science is what really matters, and we should focus on doing the best science that we can."
