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Time to synergize mental health with brain health

This Comment highlights the intertwined nature of mental and brain health and disease. Common genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors contribute to psychiatric and neurological disorders, which partially share neurocognitive and pathophysiological mechanisms. A call for a more dimensional, interdisciplinary approach can accelerate the development of robust approaches to research, prevention and intervention.

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Fig. 1: Common and interconnected levels of analysis across mental health and brain health fields and diseases.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from Takeda CW2680521; ANID/FONDECYT Regular (1210195, 1210176 and 1220995); ANID/FONDAP/15150012; and ReDLat: the National Institutes of Health and the Fogarty International Center (FIC), National Institutes of Aging (R01 AG057234), Alzheimer’s Association (SG-20-725707), Rainwater Charitable Foundation; and Global Brain Health Institute (all grants to A.I.). The contents of this publication are solely the authors’ responsibility and do not represent the official views of these institutions.

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Correspondence to Agustin Ibanez.

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Nature Mental Health thanks Joëlle Rüegg and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Ibanez, A., Zimmer, E.R. Time to synergize mental health with brain health. Nat. Mental Health 1, 441–443 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00086-0

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