New grant targets gaps in care for mood and substance use disorders

The University of Michigan is part of the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC), an organization developed to transform lives through research and innovations in the treatment and prevention of depression and bipolar disorders. The foundation of the NNDC is its Task Groups, which bring together experts from member centers and Centers of Excellence — leading academic medical institutions that integrate clinical care, research, and education to improve outcomes for mood disorders — to tackle critical priorities head on. In 2025, Sarah Sperry, Ph.D., the Richard Tam Early Career Professor of Translational Bipolar Research and associate director of the Prechter Program, and Elizabeth Lippard, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, started a new NNDC Task Group, the Mood Disorders and Substance Use Task Group. They started the group based on a critical gap in research and clinical care of those with co-occurring mood and substance use disorders.

Each year, NNDC Task Groups are invited to apply for Momentum Grants to fund pilot projects that can be used to generate proposals for larger federal or foundation grants. Drs. Sperry and Lippard received a 2026 Momentum Grant for their work, “Assessing Education and Management of Co-occurring Mood and Substance Use Disorders: Training Gaps, Stigma, and Areas for Improvement in Clinical Practices.” The goals of the grant are to identify gaps in clinical education and training, disseminate data and provide training and clinical recommendations, and build collaborations and support next-generation scientists in the field. The Task Group is building a quantitative and qualitative survey to assess  clinical gaps in education (targeting clinical psychology and psychiatry training programs), uncertainty in clinical management and treatment, and stigma surrounding patients with mood disorders and co-occurring substance use disorders. Results of these surveys will be used to inform future educational webinars with the goal of strengthening confidence and foundations in managing patients with co-occurring mood and substance use disorders as well as collaborative and innovative research projects.