Our History

Started by a small group of family and friends of the mentally ill determined to increase the pace of research to find the causes, better treatments and cures for mental illnesses, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation was originally incorporated in 1981 as the American Schizophrenia Foundation. It was developed and agreed to by three leading national mental health organizations: National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, National Mental Health Association and National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association. In 1985, the organization became the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). In 2011, the organization rebranded itself, becoming the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, awarding NARSAD Grants to fund research in every major area of brain and behavior research for all mental illness. Since awarding the first NARSAD Grant in 1987, the Foundation has distributed nearly $300 million in research grants to over 3,300 scientists in the United States and around the world.

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation supports broad-based mental health research by the best and brightest in their fields that leads to greater understanding of the causes of mental illnesses, better ways to treat and control them, and ultimately, we hope, to preventing these illnesses from occurring.

These discoveries are definitively changing what it means to live with mental illness. NARSAD Grants are awarded with the following four research priorities in mind: Basic Research, New Technologies, Diagnostic Tools/Early Intervention, Next Generation Treatments. Foundation-funded research has contributed to:

• Basic Research- The discovery of “susceptibility genes,” deepening our understanding of causes and risk factors for mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
• New Technologies- Innovative treatments for severe depression when drug therapy fails including deep brain stimulation , optogenetics and transcranial magnetic stimulation
• Diagnostic Tools/Early Intervention- New screening and early intervention methods for children and adults at risk for mental illness
• Next Generation Treatments - The development of new medications for the 30 percent of people with schizophrenia who do not respond to traditional drug therapy

• The prestigious Scientific Council, a volunteer body of 138 leading neuroscientists, including two Nobel Prize winners and four former directors of the National Institute of Mental Health, rigorously reviews and selects research proposals to identify the most outstanding projects for funding.
• The initial funding Brain & Behavior Research Foundation provides an early-career scientists for a pilot study frequently leads to larger federal and private grants to expand their research programs. For more senior scientists, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation funding allows them to pursue novel approaches to their research.

By investing in research and offering public education seminars and symposia where scientists and families can share new discoveries, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation and its donors are making potential cures for mental illness a possibility.