Brief survey.

The Mental Health Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences was organized in 1982 in accordance with the Decree No. 1149 of the Ministry of Health, of 1981.11.09, as the “All-Union Research Centre of Mental Health of the USSR, Academy of Medical Sciences”, based on the reformation of the Institute of Psychiatry of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, that had been existing since 1944. The Centre received its current title in 1992.

The Institute of Psychiatry of AMS USSR was among the first institutions that were included into the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences created in 1944. Its first director was Academician of AMS USSR, Vasiliy Andreevich Guilyarovsky (1944-1952), a prominent Russian psychiatrist, famous for his works on theoretical and clinical psychiatry, as well as on the morphology of psychoses. Textbooks on psychiatry, original monographs (“Introduction to Anatomic Evaluation of Psychoses”, 1925; “Old and New Problems of Psychiatry”, 1946; “Studies on Hallucinations”, 1949) and over 250 articles published in domestic and foreign press belong to his creative work. According to V.A. Guilyarovsky's initiative, in 1950 prefrontal lobotomy was prohibited on the whole territory of the former USSR.

Following him the directors of the Institute of Psychiatry of AMS USSR were D.D. Fedotov (1952-1960), N.M. Zharikov (1960-1962), and A.V. Snezhnevsky (1962-1982).

Numerous and various problems of theoretical and clinical psychiatry have been studied in the Institute of Psychiatry, USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, i.e. issues of endogenous and exogenous disorders, including those important for post-war psychiatry, such as mental disorders in acute and remote periods of cranio-cerebral injury, mental disorders in infectious diseases, as well as problems of epilepsy, psychoses of childhood and the elderly. Special attention was paid to the treatment of psychoses and organization of psychiatric aid. In the past years, the Institute of Psychiatry of AMS USSR was a working site for such prominent scientists and clinicians as P.M. Zinovyev, E.N. Kameneva, T.P. Simson, A.G. Galachyan, K.A. Skvortsov, M.S. Lebedinskiy, A.M. Rapoport, E.Ya. Sternberg, M.E. Vartanyan, R.A. Nadzharov, M.Sh. Vrono, G.A. Rotstein, T.F. Papadoupoulos, G.K. Ushakov, V.A. Romasenko, A.K. Anufriev, and many others. Among them there was a number of specialists of the Chair of Psychiatry of the Central Institute for Medical Postgraduate Training (CIMPT; later called the Chair of the Russian Academy of Postgraduate Training, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation), which up to 1964 was headed by A.V. Snezhnevsky, who was already the director of the Institute of Psychiatry, USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, (later V.M Morozov and A.S. Tiganov continued his activities at the chair).

Organization of a Siberian branch of the Institute of Psychiatry, USSR Academy of Medical Sciences in the city of Tomsk in 1981was a great event in its history, as the above branch played an important part in the development of medical science in the given region.

The MHRC RAMS was actually organized by academicians of RAMS Andrey Vladimirovich Snezhnevsky and Marat Enokovich Vartanyan, who eventually became directors (in 1982-1987 and 1987 - 1993, respectively).

Since 1994, the Mental Health Research Centre of RAMS has been headed by the Academician of RAMS, Professor Alexander Sergeevich Tiganov.

From the very first days of its existence MHRC RAMS was formed as a complex research establishment, intended for solving problems both of clinical and biological psychiatry. The development of fundamental problems of neuroscience were integrated and reflected in its initial structure.

The All-Union Mental Health Research Centre (AUMHRC), USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, included three institutions: the Institute of Clinical Psychiatry (with its directors being R.A. Nadzharov, 1982-1988, and A.S. Tiganov, 1988-1993), the Institute of Preventive Psychiatry (with its directors being A.V. Snezhnevsky, 1982-1987, V.S. Yastrebov, 1988-1991 and S.Yu. Tsirkin, 1991-1998), the Brain Research Institute (director - O.S. Andrianov, 1982-1990), and the Siberian branch of the Centre in Tomsk (director - A.I. Potapov, 1982-1985). After an earthquake in Armenia in 1982 another branch of the Centre was organized in Yerevan. The Centre called “Stress” (headed by A.S Tatevosyan) rendered skilled assistance to the victims of the above catastrophe.

In 1990, the Brain Research Institute once again received the status of an independent establishment of the Academy of Medical Sciences (which it had had since 1954). The branches of the Centre in Tomsk and Yerevan also became independent. In 1986 the former became the Mental Health Scientific Research Institute (director - V. Ya. Semke) of Tomsk Scientific Centre, which was later included in the Siberian department of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. MHRC RAMS also started functioning as a unified scientific institution regarding its internal organization (with no subdivision into institutes of clinical and preventive psychiatry).

At present MHRC RAMS is a complex scientific institution. Along with various clinical (in-patient and out-patient) departments it consists of laboratories of various profiles functioning with high professionalism and using high technologies.

For many years the MHRC RAMS has been a WHO Collaborating centre on biological psychiatry. The Centre is conducting various multilateral and bilateral scientific projects with domestic and foreign research organizations and establishments. Most important are studies within the programs of the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research (RFFR), “Human Genome”, etc. At the end of 80-s, the centre's laboratories were functioning within a Soviet-Italian scientific group “FIDIA - All-Union Laboratories”. Some of the laboratories are currently united with the European Research Centre, which is included in a system of centres called “The Stanley Medical Research Institite”, functioning in various countries and working on problems of schizophrenia and affective disorders.

The MHRC RAMS is the leading up-date scientific psychiatric establishment of the Russian Federation. 730 people are working in the Centre, among them being research fellows, physicians, biologists, engineers, and other professionals. There are 2 academicians of RAMS, 18 professors and 40 doctors of sciences, 105 candidates of sciences, and 1 laureate of the State Award on Science and Technique among its staff.

The MHRC RAMS is doing a great deal for postgraduate training and qualification. About 400 post-graduate students (a 3 year post-graduate scientific training) and residents, as well as on-site trainees from various regions of Russia and foreign countries, have been trained in the Centre during the last 20 years.

The MHRC RAMS, as well as the former Institute of Psychiatry of AMS USSR, is the leading psychiatric establishment of the country. It is the basis for the Inter-institutional Scientific Council on Mental Health Problems of RAMS and the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (Chairman - academician RAMS A.S. Tiganov, Deputy Chairman - corresp.-member of RAMS N.M. Zharikov, Scientific Secretary - candidate of medical sciences G.I. Kopeiko).

Since 1982 a Dissertation Council for upholding of doctoral and PhD' (Candidate of Medical Sciences) theses has been functioning in the Centre (Chairman -A.S. Tiganov, Scientific Secretary of the Council - I. Yu. Nikiforova). More than 110 PhD's and 30 doctoral theses have been successfully upheld at its meetings. The subjects of all the defended theses are connected with the plans of research work of those institutions, where they were carried out, in accordance with priority directions of development of medical sciences in the field of psychiatry. All the defended theses are both of a scientific and practical importance. The basic results and conclusions of this work have been widely applied in domestic and foreign practical healthcare institutions. They are also included in the curriculum of higher educational establishments and Institutes for Medical Postgraduate Training.

The Journal “Psychiatry” with a clinical and biological orientation, which is traditional for the national academical science, has been published since 2003 under the auspices of the MHRC RAMS.

The main part of the scientific and administrative divisions of the Centre is located in a specially erected complex of buildings in 34, Kashirskoye Shosse, within which there are 8 clinical and psychological units, consultative services, diagnostics, out-patient departments and laboratories. Clinical departments are partially functioning in municipal mental hospitals (N 1 and N 15), a number of municipal out-patient psychiatric centres of Moscow and other out-patient institutions. Thus, the complex of biological laboratories is situated in one of the buildings of the Moscow Municipal Clinical Psychiatric Hospital #1 named after N.A. Alexeyev (Head physician - doctor of medical sciences, Professor V.N. Kozyrev).