Neuroscience & Mental Health

What we do

Working with clinicians and colleagues in medicines use and safety, our collaborative drug discovery teams combine medicinal chemistry, structural biology, analytical pharmacology, drug disposition and translational models of disease to improve patient outcomes.

Our focus

Mental health View

Pain View

Dementia and neurodegeneration View

Cancer and the brain View

Program coordinators

Our highlights

M4 mAChR in complex with G proteins bound to xanomeline

Scientists uncover new and “unexpected” information about schizophrenia drug

Drug discovery researchers from Monash University have uncovered new, and unexpected, information about ‘xanomeline’, a potential-first-in class drug currently progressing through Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of patients

Macro photography of a psilocybin mushroom

More high-quality evidence needed to address misinformation and reduce fears towards psychedelics to treat mental health conditions

The study found a perceived insufficiency of evidence was preventing support for widespread clinical implementation of psychedelics in Australia.

Closeup on hand of person holding a pink pill

Vulnerable patient groups are more likely to be prescribed older antiseizure medications following stroke

The team of researchers from CMUS at MIPS followed 19,601 people hospitalised with a first ischaemic stroke in Victoria from 2013-2017.

Dr Aili Langford, Dr Emily Reeve, Professor Suzanne Nielsen

Guidelines to help clinicians on safer opioid deprescribing

The University of Sydney led guidelines, also involving researchers from Monash University, recommend that clinicians develop personalised deprescribing plans from the beginning for any patient being prescribed opioids.

Australian invention for potential treatment of anxiety disorders initiates Phase 2a Clinical Trial

The Glyph technology was initially developed by Professor Chris Porter and his team at MIPS and exclusively licensed to PureTech Health in 2017.

Are Australians living with dementia overtreated for diabetes?

A new study by CMUS researchers has found Australians living with dementia are potentially being overtreated for diabetes, despite clinical guidelines recommending a less stringent approach to treating diabetes for people with coexisting dementia.

New Cochrane Review finds there is no gold standard for predicting dementia, but machine learning provides promise

Researchers from Monash University have published a Cochrane systematic review on tools to predict dementia in middle aged adults (45 - 65 years).

pharmaceuticals in packages of different colours

Dispensing of psychotropic medications to Australian children and adolescents doubled in less than a decade

A study from Monash University has found the prevalence of psychotropic dispensing for Australian children and adolescents aged 18 years and younger was twice as high in 2021 than in 2013.

Cryo-EM structures of the M4 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor bound to G protein and ligands that bind at the endogenous binding site and allosteric site provide insight into allosteric modulator drug discovery. Image created by Sarah Piper.

World first Monash-led study unlocks key new information on major drug target for psychiatric and cognitive disorders, including schizophrenia

Other Therapeutic Program Areas