The School of Epidemiology and Public Health held its annual research day on Friday, March 1st. APEAL lab PhD Candidate François Thériault was awarded the Robert Spasoff prize for best presentation by a PhD student, for his presentation: “Pain and risk of major depression in the Canadian military: analysis of clinical and administrative databases corrected for misclassification bias”. Congratulations François!
Dr. Colman’s application for a sabbatical year has been approved, and he will be working in Oslo, Norway, from July, 2019, until June, 2020. The Norwegian Research Council will be funding Dr. Colman’s stay, and he will be collaborating with Dr. Wendy Nilsen at Oslo Metropolitan University and Dr. Simon Øverland at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Dr. Colman is looking forward to working with world class Norwegian data and eating lots of smoked salmon!
APEAL lab members Mila Kingsbury, Ewa Sucha, Hugues Sampasa-Kanyinga, and Ian Colman, in collaboration with Jane Murphy, Director of the Stirling County Study, and Stephen Gilman, Director of the Health Behaviour Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, have published a new paper in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences.
The paper uses data from the long-running Stirling County Study, established in 1952 and considered a landmark study in community based psychiatric research. The study found that experiencing more than one common mental disorder over the lifetime is extremely common, and is associated with increased risk of mortality, especially among men
Congratulations to Zahra Clayborne, a PhD student in the APEAL lab, on the publication of her systematic review: “Adolescent Depression and Long-Term Psychosocial Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”. Published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the article reviewed 31 prospective cohort studies and concluded that adolescent depression is associated with several negative long term outcomes, including school dropout and unemployment.
Hugues Sampasa-Kanyinga, a PhD student in the APEAL lab, recently published a paper in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. The paper, which can be accessed here, looked at the associations between cyberbullying and adolescent mental health in a large sample of Ontario students. The paper found that experiencing cyberbullying is generally associated with poor mental health – but that good relationships with parents may help protect boys
from psychological distress.
The APEAL lab had a big presence at this year’s meetings of the Canadian Academy of Psychiatric Epidemiology in Toronto. Lab members Mila Kingsbury and Nicole Hammond each presented papers, and Shaezeen Syed presented a poster. A big congratulations to former visiting PhD student Nathaniel Pollock, who was awarded the Roger Bland award for best student presentation for his paper: “Global incidence of suicide among Indigenous Peoples: a systematic review.
We had a blast in Toronto, and can’t wait for next year’s meeting in Quebec City!
Kudos to Gabrielle Galley, who successfully defended her MSc thesis on Sept 14, 2018. Gabby’s thesis was entitled “Exploring the Association between Early Life Stressors & Childhood Protective factors on Adolescent Mental Health Outcomes”. Gabby breezed through her defence, and when it was done her examiners raved about the policy implications of her research. Way to go, Gabby!
Many congratulations go to Dylan Johnson, who became the sixth APEAL Lab student to successfully defend their thesis in the last 12 months. Dylan’s MSc thesis was entitled “The relationship between profiles and transitions of problem behaviour in elementary-school children and engagement in health-risk behaviours in early adolescence”. Dylan’s examiners commended him on a huge amount of work, and results that should have important public health implications. Way to go, Dylan!
Kudos to APEAL Lab graduate, Dr. Michael Martin, and current lab PhD student, Dr. Hugues Sampasa-Kanyinga, on both publishing a first-author paper in the same journal on the same day! Michael’s paper is entitled “Mental health screening and differences in access to care among prisoners”, while Hugues’ paper is entitled “Mental disorder, psychological distress, and functional status in Canadian military personnel”. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry published both of these papers online on February 28, 2018. Great work, guys!
Many congratulations to Corneliu Rusu, who is the latest APEAL Lab student to successfully defend an MSc thesis. Corneliu’s thesis was titled “Risk factors for suicidal behaviour among Canadian civilians and military personnel: a recursive partitioning approach”. It was a challenge to describe some very complex analytical methods, but Corneliu handled it exceptionally well. Corneliu continues a recent trend of student success in the lab – he is the fifth student to finish their degree in the last 12 months. Way to go, Corneliu!
