NORTON FIRST UH PSYCHOLOGIST TO RECEIVE
PRESTIGIOUS NIMH AWARD
Researcher Receives $750,000 to Study Anxiety Disorder Treatments
HOUSTON, Aug. 23, 2006 – The National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH) has recognized a University of Houston faculty member
as a researcher on the rise.
Peter Norton, director of UH’s Anxiety Disorder Clinic and
assistant professor of psychology, has been named the UH Department
of Psychology’s first-ever recipient of NIMH’s Mentored
Research Scientist Development Award. This honor carries a $750,000
grant that will be applied toward a five-year study focusing on
anxiety disorders.
“This is a great honor,” Norton said. “This award
is very satisfying, and I am particularly grateful to the Department
of Psychology for its consistent support of my efforts. Most of
all, I am pleased that this award will help me engage in new research
and allow me to provide new answers to the many questions surrounding
the treatment of anxiety disorders.”
Norton’s five-year project will compare methods of treating
anxiety disorders. His research will focus on adapting cognitive
behavior therapy (CBT) to different types of anxiety disorders.
The results of this study could help psychologists treat different
anxiety disorders using a single, efficient treatment.
“Many anxiety disorders are left untreated because psychologists
often lack the time, training and resources to focus on each specific
case they encounter,” Norton said. “Anxiety disorders
by nature, however, have many similarities. By adapting CBT to groups
of patients with different anxieties, psychologists can treat more
patients and do so more effectively.”
In UH’s Anxiety Disorder Clinic, he will treat groups –
consisting of individuals with different anxiety disorders –
using CBT, which concentrates on the interaction between how individuals
think, feel and act. It also promotes self-support during moments
of fear or distress.
Norton will first compare CBT against traditional supportive group
therapy, a standardized treatment promoting group dialogues that
focus on encouragement and reassurance. He will then compare group
CBT against individual anxiety-specific treatments.
Anxiety disorders consist of excessive apprehension and fears that
often cause people to take drastic measures to avoid the things
of which they are the most afraid.
“Fears created by anxiety disorders can range from specific
places, objects, animals, disturbing thoughts, memories, embarrassment
or humiliation,” Norton said. “They will often try to
control their anxiety by avoiding the things they fear, or by doing
things to reduce their anxiety such as asking for reassurance, checking
and re-checking, washing, or telephoning loved ones to make sure
they are safe. Approximately 25 percent of Americans are diagnosed
with anxiety disorders in their lifetime.”
Throughout his study, Norton will be consulted by a committee of
three veteran researchers. These include David Francis, chairman
of UH’s Department of Psychology and director of UH’s
Texas Institute for Measurement Evaluation and Statistics; Gordon
Paul, UH’s Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished
Professor and David Barlow, professor of psychology at Boston University.
“Peter Norton’s award is a tribute to his significant
achievements in clinical research on anxiety related problems and
to the promise offered by his future contributions,” Paul
said. “UH, the Department of Psychology and the citizens of
Houston who will benefit from his work are most fortunate to have
access to such a talented clinical investigator.”
NIMH is part of the National Institutes of Health and is the lead
federal agency for research on mental and behavioral disorders.
Its mission is to reduce the burden of mental illness and behavioral
disorders through research on mind, brain, and behavior.
The Mentored Research Scientist Development Award provides support
for an intensive, supervised career development experience in one
of the biomedical, behavioral or clinical sciences leading to research
independence.
UH’s Anxiety Disorder Clinic is a specialty treatment and
research clinic housed within the University of Houston's Psychological
Research and Services Center at 4505 Cullen Blvd. The Anxiety Disorder
Clinic opened in 2004, and serves three primary purposes: providing
low-cost state-of-the-art cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment
of anxiety disorders; conducting research to better understand anxiety
disorders and improve their treatment; and training graduate students
to deliver the most powerful treatments for anxiety disorders. For
more information on the Anxiety Disorder Clinic, visit http://www.uh.edu/anxiety/index2.htm.
For more information on NIMH, visit http://www.nimh.nih.gov/.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
For more information about UH visit
the universitys Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
|