Mood and Psychosis Symptoms during the Menopause Transition (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)
This grant seeks research to understand mood and psychosis disorders arising during menopause, focusing on neurobiology, hormones, and psychosocial factors to identify treatment targets.
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Due Dates: June 16, 2025 (New) | July 16, 2025 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | October 16, 2025 (New) | November 16, 2025 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | February 16, 2026 (New) | March 16, 2026 (Renewal/Resubmission/Revision) | and similar dates through November 2027
Funding Amounts: Up to $275,000 direct costs over 2 years; no more than $200,000 in any single year; project period max 2 years.
Summary: Supports translational and mechanistic research on mood and psychosis symptoms during the menopause transition to identify neurobiological, hormonal, and psychosocial treatment targets.
Key Information: Updated March 2025: Carefully review the full NOFO for recent changes and application requirements.
Description
This NIH funding opportunity (R21 mechanism) supports exploratory and developmental research to advance understanding of the emergence and worsening of mood and psychotic disorders—such as perimenopausal depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia—during the menopause transition (MT). The goal is to identify neurobiological, hormonal, and psychosocial mechanisms underlying these symptoms and to inform future development of novel interventions or prevention strategies.
The program encourages interdisciplinary, hypothesis-driven, and mechanistic studies, including those that use dimensional or Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approaches, and welcomes teams with diverse expertise (e.g., neuroscience, endocrinology, psychiatry, psychology, engineering, epidemiology, reproductive medicine, gerontology, gynecology, pharmacology). Projects led by or including individuals with lived experience of perimenopausal depression or psychosis are encouraged.
Areas of Interest
- Neurobiological, physiological, and behavioral mechanisms underlying mood and psychosis during the menopause transition
- Risk factors (biological, genetic, psychosocial, environmental) for mood and psychosis during MT, including intersectionality frameworks
- Mechanistic role of reproductive steroids in mood and psychosis symptoms
- Identification and regulation of brain circuits or neurobiological systems as treatment targets
- Mechanisms linking mood/psychosis symptoms during MT to increased mortality or comorbidities
- Computational, neuroimaging, and digital phenotyping approaches
- Studies integrating multiple levels of analysis (e.g., genetic, cellular, brain circuit, physiological, behavioral, self-report)
Not Supported
- Studies not targeting populations in the menopause transition
- Projects focused solely on safety, efficacy, or implementation of new interventions
- Descriptive studies without mechanistic focus
- Studies using only a single level of analysis
- Stand-alone technology development
- Nonhuman animal studies
