50th anniversary celebration

The Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw is one of the largest research facilities of the Ministry of Health. In the ranking of scientific institutions subordinated to the Minister of Health, it occupies one of the first places, and since 1992 it has had the status of a Center Cooperating with the World Health Organization in the field of Scientific Research and Training in the field of Mental Health ("WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Mental Health").

50 years ago, the Institute was established by the Council of Ministers as an independent scientific and research institution with the task of conducting and coordinating scientific research in psychiatry and neurology. From the moment of his appointment, he operated as:

1. a scientific and research facility conducting research in the field of psychiatry, neurology and related fields, and as a unit coordinating this research throughout the country

2. a consultation center for the Ministry of Health, other state administration bodies and health care facilities

3. postgraduate training center in the field of neurology and psychiatry

4. a highly specialized diagnostic and treatment facility in the field of neurology and mental disorders.

Over the course of 50 years, the Institute has grown from a small facility employing approximately 60 people into a large scientific, research and clinical center employing over a thousand employees, including 141 research workers.

In the field of psychiatry, he conducts research on the diagnosis and clinic of mental disorders, new treatment methods, especially psychopharmacotherapy, social psychiatry, epidemiology of mental disorders and their genetic and civilizational determinants, and rehabilitation. In neurology, he worked on stroke rehabilitation, metabolic diseases of the central nervous system, and clinical and social aspects of epilepsy. He introduced modern research methods: electrophysiological, biochemical and genetic methods (including molecular genetics), CNS imaging methods. modern methods used in experimental psychopharmacology. The implementation of these methods was associated with the increasing availability of modern equipment (computer tomography, magnetic resonance imaging), which was successively equipped with scientific facilities and clinics. The Institute's clinical base was expanded - day wards, two modern psychiatric wards, a neurological rehabilitation ward with modern rehabilitation equipment, and the computer network was modernized.

Since the 1950s, the Institute has participated in shaping both mental health policy and the organizational model of psychiatric care. With the participation of representatives of the psychiatric community (including the Polish Psychiatric Association) and the legal community, the Institute developed the Mental Health Protection Act, which for over 7 years has been the most important document regulating the rights of people with mental disorders and defining the tasks of psychiatric health care in Poland. The Institute systematically monitors the implementation of the Act.

The National Mental Health Program developed by the Institute profoundly revolutionizes the current care model. The program envisages the development of psychiatric care based on the principles of community psychiatry, i.e. providing help to people with mental disorders, mainly in their environment. The basic link of community care are clinics and various forms of partial hospitalization (day, night), community care teams, crisis intervention centers, various types of day care (clubs, community self-help homes, occupational therapy workshops), various forms of residence (sheltered apartments, hostels). . It assumes a far-reaching transformation and modernization of hospital treatment, through the development of a network of departments at general hospitals, while simultaneously reducing the number of beds in large psychiatric hospitals. These changes should lead to more professionally diverse and widely available care. The program indicates the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders as the main tasks of health policy.

The concept of care for mentally ill people who have committed criminal acts, included in the program, is of particular importance. Based on the Institute's proposals, three regional forensic psychiatry centers have already been organized (Branice, Gostynin, Starogard Gd.).

On the initiative of the Institute, the assumptions of the currently implemented National Stroke Prevention Program were developed, whose main task is to prevent strokes and implement more effective help for people with cerebrovascular diseases.

Social issues, in particular alcohol and drug addiction policy, are an important element of the Institute's work. The Act "On upbringing in sobriety and counteracting alcoholism", adopted in 1982, owes its form to the expertise of the Institute's employees. 

The reorientation in the treatment of addiction issues in the 1980s - the public health perspective promoted by the World Health Organization replaced the previous clinical view - influenced the expansion of research. The Institute undertook large-scale sociological, psychosocial and epidemiological research, not forgetting the biological approach.

The Institute prepared a report on the situation of drug addiction and played an important role in the preparation of the Act on the Prevention of Drug Addiction, adopted in 1985. This Act, unlike the legislation of other countries, did not provide for penalization for drug possession. The liberal nature of the act did not contribute to an increase in drug consumption and drug addiction was not pushed underground. This allowed for early treatment of HIV and AIDS and issues related to education.

The years of political transformation brought an increase in alcohol consumption and the prevalence of drug addiction. The Institute conducts epidemiological and social research, the purpose of which is not only to monitor ongoing changes, but also to evaluate the policy. Over the last decade, the Institute has been developing and putting into practice programs to reduce the demand for psychoactive substances, including educational programs, programs addressed to local communities, promotion of harm reduction programs (the first methadone program in Poland, research on needle exchange programs among drug addicts). The research and practical experience gained were important in developing subsequent laws in this field.

For 30 years, the Institute has been systematically collecting and developing statistical data on psychiatric, addiction and neurological health care activities in Poland in the form of the statistical yearbook "Psychiatric and neurological health care facilities". This study contains not only the most important data on prevalence and registered morbidity, but also information on human resources and the database in individual voivodeships. The IPiN Statistical Yearbook is the basic source for secondary studies, including: health status of the population and health needs of the population in Poland.

Since 1969, the Institute has conducted clinical trials on approximately 100 psychotropic drugs and 50 drugs used in neurology, including almost all drugs newly registered in Poland and used in psychiatry and neurology.

New methods of diagnosis, therapy (e.g. Wilson's disease) and prevention (e.g. preventing relapses of bipolar disorder) have been implemented into clinical practice nationwide.

In the years 1951-2000, employees published over 5,700 works and several dozen monographs and textbooks.

The slowly occurring change in social attitudes towards people with mental and neurological disorders and mental illness itself is taking place thanks to the painstaking activity of the Institute's employees.

The future of IPiN is related to its transformation into the National Institute of Mental Health, whose tasks should include not only problems related to psychiatric and neurological health care, but also the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders and neurological diseases.