10th anniversary symposium for the Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize
Canadian researchers are making a major contribution to understanding the causes and contributors to mental illness and finding innovative approaches to prevent and treat these illnesses, showed presentations at a symposium held online January 29, 2025.
The symposium was held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize and was organized by the prize’s joint sponsors, the University of Ottawa Institute for Mental Health at the Royal and the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada.
All 10 winners gave presentations on their current research. The symposium was open to anyone interested, and 68 attendees learned about research using techniques as varied as molecular biology, neurosurgery, data analysis, and evaluation of new programs to help populations in Canada and around the world.
The symposium was recorded and is available to view:
Preventing mental health problems
Several common themes emerged during the symposium. Many presenters stressed the value of proactive support to Canadians to prevent poor mental health.
A longitudinal study of post-traumatic stress disorder in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has shown the value of an evidence-based Emotional Resilience Skills Training program and ongoing self-monitoring in helping police officers avoid or better cope with operational stress injuries — mental health effects of the difficult situations they encounter as part of their work. The study is being conducted by Nicholas Carleton, a professor of psychology at the University of Regina, whose research focuses on the mental health of professional safety personnel.
The mental health of young adults 18 to 23 who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and other alternative sexual identities is the subject of a study by Tracie Afifi, a professor of psychology at the University of Manitoba. Her research looks at the relationship between childhood maltreatment and later mental health problems. In a longitudinal study of 1000 youth in Manitoba, she found that young adults with those sexual identities were more likely to have suffered maltreatment as children and to have poor mental health or use substances than those who identified as heterosexual or “straight.” In fact, the combination of an alternative sexual identity and child maltreatment led to worse mental health and substance use in some cases.
She said this finding emphasizes the need for safe environments for all children, and the need to prevent maltreatment among children and youth who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual and other alternative sexuality, as a priority for public health.
Intervening early
Other researchers are looking at early intervention to help people recover from mental health problems and to prevent their continuation or recurrence.
Simone Vigod, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and Women’s College Hospital, studies poor mental health before, during and after pregnancy. She has developed an online platform for those experiencing pregnancy, where they can get various levels of mental health care depending on their needs, called MOVIN, the Pregnancy and Postpartum Mental health Optimization Virtual Intervention Network. On a computer or mobile phone, pregnant people can read evidence-based information, take a screening survey to learn their symptoms, schedule a call to plan their mental health care with a coordinator, and even talk to a psychiatrist if needed.
Sheri Madigan, a psychology professor at the University of Calgary and Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, has helped developed a program called Cope, that helps families with children who have suffered trauma. Because wait times for child therapy can be four months to a year, the program offers parents and other caregivers online advice and information in the meantime. They learn ways to talk to children about trauma and coping skills for themselves. The program is also a single door to many other resources.
Youth is a period when many mental illnesses first appear, and Srividya Iyer, a researcher with McGill University and the Douglas Research Centre in the Montreal area, is currently studying programs to intervene early in psychosis. With her colleagues, she is looking at the effects of such programs. She has been involved in establishing such programs across Canada. They are also starting in a growing number of low- and middle-income countries — 16 at last count. Recent research looks at the value of these programs in India and Latin American and Caribbean countries. Iyer, who served on an international Commission on Youth Mental Health launched by the journal Lancet Psychiatry, says that the current crisis in youth mental health was documented in many countries even before the pandemic began in 2020. She says that Canada should make the mental health of our youth a top health priority.
From his research showing symptoms and behaviour that are warning signs of future depression, Rudolf Uher, professor of psychiatry at Dalhousie University, is investigating ways to pre-empt depression in youth who show those signs. A study underway will look at the results of a program called Skills for Wellness, which is meant to help youth 9 to 17 years of age with cognitive-behavioural therapy. Another current study called Treatment Interrupts Depression Early (TIDE) will look at which treatment — drug therapy or psychotherapy — works best for whom, in young people facing depression, as no single treatment works for everyone.
Delving into the brain… and body
Researchers are looking at what happens in the brain and body in mental illness, which may help lead to preventive approaches and new therapies.
Jean Martin Beaulieu, a researcher at the University of Toronto, studies how mood may be affected by changes at the molecular level. He was trying to understand how lithium — a common element used to treat bipolar disorder — acts to stabilize patients’ mood, when he discovered that a known protein (Fxr1) is important in emotional stability. By editing genes in mice, he found that certain mutations affect Fxr1. Continuing research has shown that Fxr1 affects emotional stability in humans as well as mice, affects neurons involved in anxiety, and regulates sleep. Levels of Fxr1 can be changed by certain chemicals, which may lead to new drugs for mood disorders in future.
From the lab to the operating room, Nir Lipsman, a neurosurgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto and the University of Toronto, studies new, non-invasive types of surgery to treat mental illness that has not responded to other therapies. To date, he has tried deep brain stimulation, involving electrodes implanted within the brain, to bring about lasting improvement in depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and alcohol use disorder. But deep brain stimulation means a permanent, lifelong treatment with a battery pack and wires on the patient’s body. Another approach he is now trying involves focussed ultrasound. Ultrasound waves can be used to create a very precise and accurate lesion in the region of the brain that is involved in the mental illness. Current research with a small number of patients with obsessive compulsive disorder shows that most show improvement within a year after focussed ultrasound surgery.
In another innovative way of looking at mental disorders, James McKillop at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, measures how much people with addictions value the substance they use by how much they are willing to pay for it — an area called neuroeconomics. Determining how much a patient is willing to pay for a substance can be used to show the price at which it’s too expensive and they won’t use it. It can also show the change in their behaviour after addiction treatment, when they will buy less, even at a low price. He uses this approach in concert with imaging, cognitive and behavioural science, and genetics.
An intriguing connection between bipolar disorder and cardiovascular disease is the subject of Benjamin Goldstein’s research at the University of Toronto. Although it has been noticed by researchers since the 1920s, the connection is not yet fully understood. Goldstein’s team has found that worse cardiovascular health is associated with psychiatric symptoms and problems with brain structure and function in youth with bipolar disorder. This link may eventually help researchers to understand what causes bipolar disorder, Goldstein believes. It also opens the possibility that improving cardiovascular measures in these youth might improve not only their heart health but also their mental health.
