Centre for Clinical Research Excellence in Anxiety and Neuroscience

该中心将汇集澳大利亚领先的焦虑和神经科学研究人员，开发、评估和传播更好的焦虑治疗方法。流行病学研究表明，焦虑症很常见，终生患病率估计高达15%(1)。这些疾病的共同特征是对恐惧刺激的过度生理唤醒，这导致了普遍的回避，对人们的生活产生了破坏性的影响。此外，焦虑经常作为其他主要疾病的合并症特征出现，如精神分裂症、药物使用和抑郁症。焦虑是世界上主要的健康负担之一；在美国每年要花费440亿美元。世界各地的卫生机构正在投入前所未有的资源来了解焦虑的神经基础和减少焦虑。基于焦虑神经科学的最新进展，该中心将扩大治疗期间神经递质调节的能力，以减少焦虑障碍。通过与社区临床医生的广泛培训计划，该中心将进行大规模的社区试验，以评估新方法的有效性。该中心将培养新一代神经科学研究人员和临床医生，他们能够熟练地将基础科学发现转化为临床实践。

This Centre will bring together Australia's leading anxiety and neuroscience researchers to develop, evaluate, and disseminate better treatments of anxiety. Epidemiological studies indicate that anxiety disorders are common, with lifetime prevalence estimated to be as high as 15% (1). These disorders share the features of excessive physiological arousal in response to feared stimuli, and this leads to pervasive avoidance that has a debilitating impact on people's lives. In addition, anxiety is often present as a co-morbid feature of other major disorders, such as schizophrenia, substance use, and depression. Anxiety is one of the world's major health burdens; it costs $44 billion per year in the United States. Health agencies around the world are now putting unprecedented resources into understanding the neural bases of anxiety and its reduction. Building on recent advances in the neuroscience of anxiety, the Centre will expand the capacity for neurotransmitter modulation during therapy to reduce anxiety disorders. By extensive training programs with community clinicians, the Centre will conduct large-scale community trials to assess effectiveness of new approaches. The Centre will foster a new generation of neuroscience researchers and clinicians who are skilled in translating basic science findings into clinical practice.