Mental Illness, Behavioral Medicine & Suicide Prevention

Dr. Blumenthal served for 12 years (1981-1993) as a research scientist and administrator at the National Institutes of Health in positions including Chief of the Behavioral Medicine and Basic Prevention Research Branch, Head of the Suicide Research Unit and Coordinator of Project Depression at the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Blumenthal also was the Chair of the NIH Health and Behavior Coordinating Committee. Her work at the National Institutes of Health focused on mental illness and suicide research and education and on the creation of a national focus on disease prevention and behavioral medicine. Her scientific and educational contributions significantly advanced NIMH and NIH research programs in these areas integrating behavioral approaches into the fabric of all NIH institutes and also increased awareness and knowledge about the causes, treatments, and real life impact of mental illness.

• In 2001, at the request of the Secretary, US Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Blumenthal led the development and coordination of a Departmental action plan to address the mental health needs of children affected by the terrorist attacks against our nation.  Many of the recommendations of this plan were implemented by HHS agencies.  She developed public education materials on the mental health effects of terrorism, convened and chaired a national conference, and worked with senior federal, state, and local health officials to identify and design intervention strategies to promote recovery and resiliency.​

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• She was an architect of the HHS Healthier US public education campaign on disease prevention.​

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• Dr. Blumenthal has authored numerous publications and edited several books including Suicide over the Life Cycle. She served as the Scientific Editor of the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent Suicide and contributed to the Surgeon General’s Call to Action on Obesity Prevention.

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• Dr. Blumenthal served as the Chair of Save the Children’s CHANGE National Advisory Council on Childhood Obesity Prevention.​

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• She served as Senior Public Health Advisor to the White House Council on Youth Violence, contributing to the coordination of the Federal response to this public health problem, which had previously been fragmented across agencies, fostering new initiatives, and collaborations between government agencies. She established and served as the Medical Director of the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center creating a website (safeyouth.org) that linked all federal resources on this public health problem.​

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• In 1992, Dr. Blumenthal was appointed by the Director of the NIH to serve as Co-Chair of the NIH Transition Task Force that fostered reintegration of the research components of the former Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA) – the National Institute of Mental Health, the NIAAA, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse – into the NIH family.  She provided leadership in increasing attention to prevention, behavioral medicine, and health services research at the National Institutes of Health and coordinated research on health and behavior across NIH institutes and centers. Dr. Blumenthal developed initiatives and programs to foster research and to heighten scientific and public awareness of mental illness and the contributions of behavioral, lifestyle, and environmental factors in the etiology, treatment and prevention of diseases including cardiovascular illnesses, cancer, stroke, and diabetes.  She coordinated nutrition and sleep disorders research at the NIMH and served as a member of the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research. During her NIH service, she provided leadership in exposing the inequities in women’s health research and stimulated new initiatives on sex differences in health and disease and promoted the career development and leadership opportunities for women in academic medicine and in the Federal government.​​

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• Dr. Blumenthal served as Chief of the Basic Prevention and Behavioral Medicine Research Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health.  In this position, she developed and administered a research program focusing on disease prevention, the biological and psychosocial risk factors influencing the development and course of medical illnesses, behavioral problems, and disorders including eating disorders, sleep disorders, pain, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and health damaging behaviors.  She helped develop a new field of psychoneuroimmunology. Dr. Blumenthal identified critical public health issues, developed new initiatives and then coordinated research programs within the NIMH.  To stimulate research, she organized and chaired numerous NIMH conferences on suicide, AIDS, eating disorders, women’s mental health issues, genetics, stress, sleep disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, and co-morbidity of mental and physical illnesses.

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• In the 1980’s, Dr. Blumenthal served as the Head of the Suicide Research Unit and Coordinator of Project Depression at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).  At a time when there was only minimal scientific and public attention to the public health problem of suicide, she initiated a national suicide research and prevention program at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Blumenthal stimulated the systematic study of the biological, behavioral, and psychological factors that contribute to suicidal behavior. She was among the first to address suicide as a public health problem emphasizing the importance of the early detection and treatment of mental illness as a cornerstone of suicide prevention.  She developed a new model for understanding suicidal behavior, significantly increasing research and prevention programs on this public health problem, and edited a major book, Suicide over the Life Cycle.  Dr. Blumenthal served as a national spokesperson and the NIMH’s leading expert on suicide research and prevention, educating the public and health care professionals about this public health problem.   She served as medical director for a videodisc on the assessment of suicidal behavior for health care providers and contributed to the work of the Secretary’s Task Force on Youth Suicide Prevention. Dr. Blumenthal convened and chaired numerous conferences, developed research initiatives, and fostered scientific and public attention to increase knowledge and to prevent suicide.

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• Convened a major conference to re-examine the field of behavioral medicine and set new research directions.  This document provided the foundation for new research initiatives at NIH on disease prevention.​​

• Fostered new research on eating disorders, convened several conferences and stimulated research initiatives on this public health problem.

• Fostered the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology, stimulating new research, convening conferences and disseminating information through conferences and monographs. Organized and chaired the first Mind/Body conference at the NIH with a major focus on disease prevention. Co-edited a book on psychoneuroimmunology.

• Played a major national role in bringing women’s health issues to the fore.  Developed a national research agenda at the NIMH on these issues.  Her contributions were a major force in raising awareness about the exclusion of women from clinical trials and in promoting the examination of sex and gender-based differences in research within the NIMH, NIH and nationally.

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• Was a major force at the NIMH in initiating new federal initiatives on the examination of sex differences in mental illness.  Stimulated research on the psychobiology of female reproductive events across the life cycle, convened numerous conferences and edited books on these issues.

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• Dr. Blumenthal served as Coordinator of Project Depression, the precursor of the NIMH’s Depression Awareness and Treatment Campaign, the first national education campaign on clinical depression. She collaborated with mental health consumer and health care professional groups to develop national campaigns to destigmatize mental illness and to educate health care providers and the public about the causes and treatment of mental disorders.

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