A Personal Message from CINP President, Gabriella Gobbi:

When I was a medical student in Rome in the late 1980s, I had the opportunity to explore the archives of Santa Maria della Pietà, one of Rome’s historic psychiatric hospitals, during the years in which Italy was dismantling its psychiatric hospital system following the Basaglia Law.

I remember reading clinical records from the 1950s and 1960s.

There was Lucia, a young mother who developed severe psychosis after giving birth. She was separated from her newborn child and spent much of the rest of her life in the institution.

There was Renzo, a young man who developed what we would today recognize as bipolar disorder. He, too, was admitted to an asylum.

Years of institutionalization made returning to an independ

ent life extraordinarily difficult.

Their stories have remained with me throughout my career.

Today, their lives could be very different.

A woman experiencing postpartum psychosis can receive effective treatment, recover and live with her family. A person with bipolar disorder can receive treatment, pursue a career, build a family and live a rich and fulfilling life.

This progress did not happen by chance.

It came from decades of research in neuroscience, psychopharmacology, clinical research, psychotherapy, neuromodulation, epidemiology and brain imaging.

Research has also helped us achieve something fundamental: challenging the stigma surrounding mental illness.

But our work is far from finished.

Too many people still do not respond adequately to availabl

e treatments. Too many lives are still lost to suicide. Stigma and discrimination remain. And access to high-quality mental health care is still profoundly unequal around the world.

This is why we must continue.

At CINP, scientists and clinicians from across the world work together to understand mental disorders, discover new treatments, improve existing therapies, educate the next generation and challenge stigma.

On this World Mental Health Day, let us remember how far we have come—and how much further we must go.

Mental health research saves lives.

Together, CINP is working to advance brain and mental health around the world.