Department of Physiology, School of Medicine
Neuroscience Center of Excellence.
J Neurosci. 2021 Oct 20;41(42):8669-8672. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1319-21.2021.
Racism is a threat to public health. Race is a sociopolitical construct that has been used for generations to create disparities in educational access, housing conditions, exposure to environmental contaminants, and access to health care. Collectively, these disparities have a negative impact on the health of non-white Americans. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds biomedical research, including basic neuroscience research, aimed at understanding the mechanisms and consequences of health and disease in Americans. NIH has recently acknowledged its own structural racism, the disadvantage this perpetuates in the biomedical research enterprise, and has announced its commitment to eliminating these disparities. Here, we discuss different rates of disease in U.S. citizens from different racial backgrounds. We next describe ways in which the biomedical research enterprise (1) has contributed to health disparities and (2) can contribute to the solving this problem. Based on our own scientific expertise, we use neuroscience in general and mental health/addiction disorders more specifically as examples of a broader issue. The NIH, including its neuroscience-focused Institutes, and NIH-funded scientists, including neuroscientists, should prioritize research topics that reflect the health conditions that affect all Americans, not just white Americans.
种族主义是公共卫生的威胁。种族是一种社会政治结构，几代人以来一直被用来在教育机会、住房条件、接触环境污染物以及获得医疗保健方面造成差异。这些差异共同对非裔美国人的健康产生负面影响。美国国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 资助生物医学研究，包括基础神经科学研究，旨在了解美国人健康和疾病的机制和后果。NIH 最近承认了其自身的结构性种族主义，以及这种种族主义在生物医学研究企业中造成的不利影响，并宣布致力于消除这些差异。在这里，我们讨论了来自不同种族背景的美国公民的不同疾病发病率。接下来，我们描述了生物医学研究企业（1）如何导致健康差异，以及（2）如何有助于解决这个问题。基于我们自己的科学专业知识，我们以神经科学为例，更具体地说是以精神健康/成瘾障碍为例，来说明更广泛的问题。NIH，包括其专注于神经科学的研究所，以及 NIH 资助的科学家，包括神经科学家，应该优先考虑反映影响所有美国人的健康状况的研究课题，而不仅仅是白人美国人。
