# Penn mental health AIDS research center

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2020 · $1,510,062

## Abstract

Overview Abstract/Summary
The overarching theme of the Penn Mental Health AIDS Research Center (PMHARC) at the
University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is to
transform how individuals with comorbid mental illness/AIDS are treated and managed by
developing innovative, interdisciplinary, and integrative approaches to optimize psychiatric,
behavioral, and medical outcomes and achieving a better understanding of the biological,
psychological, and behavioral mechanisms underlying these combined illnesses and
treatments. No other center in the U.S. is currently pursuing this explicit focus, making
PMHARC unique in the NIMH ARC portfolio. A substantial body of work links psychiatric
disorders to acquisition of HIV infection, accelerated immune dysfunction, poor access to HIV
care, and poor adherence to antiretroviral treatment once in care. Yet, there is a relative paucity
of evidence-based interventions focused on the combined treatment of mental illness/AIDS and
related medical co-morbidities, and relatively little work in determining the relationships between
mental health treatment and HIV/AIDS disease and understanding the underlying biology.
PMHARC will stimulate novel approaches and strategies to address these problems by
providing mentoring and resource support for both new and established investigators choosing
to study comorbid mental illness/AIDS, in part through innovative pilot studies. PMHARC's
leadership has extensive expertise in contemporary pharmacotherapy of mental illness and
AIDS, cognitive behavioral treatments, and theory-based behavioral interventions. PMHARC will
extend well-established collaborations at Penn and CHOP, including those in the Department of
Psychiatry and the CFAR, as well as with the CTSA/CTRC, the Delaney Collaboratory, and
community partners in Philadelphia. A unique feature of PMHARC is the collaboration of well-
established mental health AIDS researchers, well-established mental health researchers who
have not previously studied AIDS, well-established substance abuse AIDS researchers who
have not previously studied mental health, and AIDS researchers not previously focused on
mental health. PMHARC has an Administrative and Developmental Core, and four Shared
Resource Cores.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9864089
- **Project number:** 5P30MH097488-08
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** DWIGHT L. EVANS
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $1,510,062
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-06-03 → 2023-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9864089

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9864089, Penn mental health AIDS research center (5P30MH097488-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9864089. Licensed CC0.

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