Applied Psychiatric Epidemiology Across the Lifecourse

Congrats go out to APEAL Lab student Nicole Hammond, who recently completed her MSc in Epidemiology. Nicole chose the research paper stream, which allowed her to complete her degree shockingly quickly. Nicole started on September 6, 2016, and had her final research paper approved on January 19, 2018, which makes her degree the 500-day MSc! Nicole’s research paper focused on the relationship between early childhood stress, internalizing symptoms later in childhood, and the onset of migraine headache. Using Statistics Canada data allowed Nicole to do her research very efficiently. Way to go, Nicole!

Kudos to Hugues Sampasa-Kanyinga, a first-year PhD student in the lab, on his new paper entitled “Child abuse and work stress in adulthood: evidence from a population-based study”, published in Preventive Medicine. This paper showed that adults who experienced abuse as children are more likely to have jobs that are stressful and unsatisfying. This project was done in collaboration with Dr. Wendy Nilsen from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Way to go, team!

Many congratulations for Kiyuri Naicker, who successfully defended her PhD thesis on December 19, 2017. Kiyuri’s thesis was entitled “Depression and Anxiety in type 2 Diabetes: Associations with Diabetes Onset, Clinical Management, and Long-Term Mortality”. Her examiners were unanimously positive about her well written thesis, which passed with the highest grade. Way to go, Dr. Naicker!

Collaboration between three APEAL Lab members (Ewa Sucha, Mila Kingsbury, & Ian Colman) 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, has led to a new paper in the CMAJ on depression and mortality. The Stirling County Study commenced in 1952 and is considered a landmark study in the field of community based psychiatric research. This paper found that depression increases the risk of mortality, and that the differences between women and men have been decreasing over time. Women with depression had an increased risk of mortality from 1992 to 2011 that was the same as the risk for men. This research underscores the need for people with depression to seek early treatment.

Many congratulations to Natalia Abraham for successfully defending her MSc thesis entitled “Childhood adversity, deployment-related stress, and mental health in the Canadian Armed Forces”. Natalia completed her MSc as part of the Public Health and Preventive Medicine residency program. Despite her busy schedule, Natalia wrote a compelling thesis and her defence was smooth sailing. Way to go, Natalia!

Hearty congratulations go out to Michael Martin, who successfully defended his PhD thesis on July 10, 2017. Micheal’s thesis was entitled “Detection and Treatment of Mental Illness among Prison Inmates: A Validation of Mental Health Screening at Intake to Correctional Service of Canada”, and has resulted in several published papers, with more to come. Michael handled his defence with remarkable poise. Way to go, Dr. Martin!

Congratulations to APEAL student Dylan Johnson, whose first-author paper “The association between multiple chemical sensitivity and mental illness: Evidence from a nationally representative sample of Canadians” was recently published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research. The study found that Canadians who reported a diagnosis of multiple chemical sensitivity were more likely to suffer from major depression and severe distress. Kudos to Dylan and co-author Ian Colman for an interesting read!

Click here to read the paper.