Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center

Children's Mental Health Research

At Bradley Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital, our role as leaders in child mental health research stretches back more than 75 years. As a field of scientific investigation, you could say that pediatric psychopharmacology began at Bradley Hospital, with the 1937 publication of the results of stimulant trials in children.

We have continued a long tradition of taking our valuable clinical research and applying it directly to our mission of improving the lives of children and their families. Today, for example, our pioneering research in children’s sleep, infant development, psychophysiology, and HIV prevention has translated into new and effective treatments and strategies for children and their families.

Leading the Nation in Clinical Research

Our commitment to training the next generation of researchers runs deep. Research training in child mental health at Bradley Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health since 1994 and has continued to expand. Today, we are known as one of the nation’s premier child mental health research training sites.

In the 1990s, as child mental health research at our hospitals continued to grow and develop, we reached a critical mass where it made sense to pull all our research together under a single umbrella. To centralize our efforts, promote collaboration among research groups, and maximize our impact on our field, all the child mental health researchers of our two hospitals came together to form the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center (BHCRC). Since opening in 2002, we have expanded further, with several research groups moving into the Bradley Campus Research Unit and others into new space in our main location.

Training the Next Generation of Investigators

Under the BHCRC umbrella, investigators direct over 50 externally funded projects. Grant support is extensive: awards average over $10 million each year, and the total grant awards for all years of currently active projects averages close to $50 million. In addition, a highly successful, NIH-supported research training program within the BHCRC is producing the next generation of young investigators.

Our investigators continually seek answers to the most important questions in the realm of child development and child mental health. We explore new insights into the genetic roots of autism; find pediatric bio-behavioral markers of bipolar disorder; create effective therapies for OCD; devise effective prevention strategies for adolescent sexual risk behaviors and obesity; and much more. Every day, we generate new projects, test new therapies, and challenge conventional wisdom in new ways—all with the single aim of helping children develop into healthy adults.