The aims of the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology are to improve health care in the field of psychiatry and neurology and to conduct research in these and allied fields. Research methods range from molecular level to psychological and epidemiological approaches. Different disciplines are represented by 25 departments including, among others, four departments of psychiatry, two departments of neurology, the Department of Neurotic Disorders and Psychotherapy, the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Department of Forensic Psychiatry. Basic research, frequently in cooperation with other clinical units, is conducted by several departments and laboratories such as the Department of Neurochemistry, the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology of the Nervous System, the Department of Genetics, the Department of Neuropathology, the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology.

Magnetic resonance imaging

The Institute is presently carrying out clinical, epidemiologic and experimental research projects in the field of psychiatry and neurology. Many research programs are focused on pathogenesis and new methods of diagnosis, prevention and treatment of affective disorders, schizophrenia, alcohol and opiate dependences, cerebrovascular dementia, extrapyramidal system disorders, metabolic and inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system. Moreover, the Institute coordinates cerebral stroke studies carried out in Poland in collaboration with a number of centers abroad.

Computerized tomography

Special attention is paid to efficacy of new drugs in the treatment of neurological and mental disorders, as well as to that of psychotherapy and sociotherapy. A considerable number of researchers participate in international scientific programs concerning multicenter new drug trials, preclinical study of new potential drugs, epidemiological aspects of alcohol and drug abuse, epidemiology and treatment of Alzheimer's type dementia and classification of mental disorders. Some scientists and clinicians at the Institute have experience in studying (preclinical and clinical I-III phase) neuropsychotropic drugs.

The Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology was the first institution in the post-war Poland to launch research into the process and outcome of psychotherapy and family therapy. The studies have significantly influenced the development of psychotherapy in Poland.

In 1981-1990 the Institute acquired the position of a nationwide coordinator of alcohol and drug research. The intra- and extramural projects carried out in about 70 academic and scientific centers include biomedical, clinical, epidemiological and social research. Apart from a substantial progress in basic and applied research, an integrated, interdisciplinary research community that evolved has been an invaluable outcome of that venture.

The Institute also acted as the Coordinator of a Research Program on Mental Disorders and Diseases of the Nervous System, sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

Research workers of the Institute participate in international meetings and congresses, frequently acting as co-organizers and session chairpersons. As members of international scientific societies, they belong to executive boards, e.g. of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, European Behavioural Pharmacology Society, and to editorial boards of international journals in the field of psychiatry, neurobiology and psychopharmacology (e.g. Human Psychopharmacology, New Trends in Experimental and Clinical Psychiatry, International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis). Every year the Institute is visited by many scientists from various countries.

The Institute has made a significant contribution to the program of psychiatric and neurological services. Many regulations and legislative acts were prepared with a contribution from the Institute, including the Act of 1982 on Upbringing in Sobriety and Counteracting Alcoholism, the Law of 1985 on Preventing Drug Dependence, and the Mental Health Act, which was passed by the Parliament in 1994. Professor Stanisław Dąbrowski, M.D., Ph.D., the former Director of the Institute, deserves considerable credit for his many years' work on the Mental Health Act development.

A Mental Health Program for Poland was developed by the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in collaboration with the WHO. The Program was accepted by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare at the beginning of 1995 and the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology is responsible for the Program implementation. Efforts are being made currently to include the Mental Health Program among governments programs.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare a program of methadone substitution of drug dependent persons has been introduced by the Institute for the first time in Poland.

Hospital wards of the Institute provide treatment to patients with mental and neurological disorders mostly from the Mokotów district (with the population of about 400,000), and also serve as a nationwide consulting and treatment center. The clinical activity of the Institute involves outpatient facilities. The hospital wards have 445 beds, i.e. 359 for psychiatric patients (in that number 34 for neurotics) and 86 for neurological cases. Day-care centers provide another 96 places, while in the outpatient department over 8000 visits are registered yearly.