Applied Psychiatric Epidemiology Across the Lifecourse

Many congratulations to APEAL Lab alumnus Yasmin Garad on the publication of her paper entitled “Sex-specific differences in the association between childhood adversity and cardiovascular disease in adulthood: evidence from a national cohort study” in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. Yasmin was an MSc student in the APEAL Lab at the University of Alberta, and this paper was the focus of her MSc thesis. Yasmin’s research showed that the relationship between childhood adversity and heart disease in adulthood was stronger in women than men. Congrats on a brilliant idea and a great paper, Yasmin!

Click here to read the paper.

Dr. Colman was delighted to recently support the launch of the Have That Talk campaign. Have That Talk is a program from Ottawa Public Health, in partnership with Bell Let’s Talk, to encourage people to talk to their loved ones about their mental health. The launch event featured new videos created for the campaign (check them out at www.havethattalk.ca), and inspiring words from some mental health champions.)

Shown in the photo are Ben Leikin (Supervisor of Mental Health for Ottawa Public Health), Dr. Ian Manion (Director of Youth Mental Health Research Unit for the Institute of Mental Health Research), Dr. Isra Levy (Medical Officer of Health for Ottawa Public Health), Mary Deacon (Chair of Bell Let’s Talk), Jim Watson (Mayor of Ottawa), Dr. Azaad Kassam (Psychiatrist at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital), and Dr. Ian Colman.

Congratulations to Ian Colman,  principal investigator on a successful grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The one-year grant will fund an investigation into the effect of parenting practices during childhood on adolescent mental health and behaviour. Also on the grant are APEAL member Mila Kingsbury and collaborators Stephen Gilman, Ian Manion, and Sonja Swanson.

Congratulations to APEAL PhD candidate François Thériault, who has recently published a paper in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.  The paper, co-authored by Dr. Ian Colman, is based on a project François completed for a graduate course in Psychiatric Epidemiology taught by Dr. Colman. The paper reports that, compared to non-seekers, those who recently sought mental health care for themselves were more likely to be aware of family or friends who had sought treatment. These results help shed light on the social aspects of mental health treatment-seeking behaviour.

Congratulations to APEAL PhD Student Kiyuri Naicker, who has published a new paper in Diabetes Care based on her dissertation research. The paper, written in collaboration with experts at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the University of Bergen, and the University of Alberta, was based on a large sample of Norwegian adults. Results demonstrated that the presence of anxiety and depression increased mortality risk among individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Click here to read the abstract of the paper. Congratulations Kiyuri!

At the 2016 European Psychiatric Association Epidemiology Section meeting in Goteborg, Sweden, at the end of November, several  Lab members were on stage. PhD student Kiyuri Naicker was invited to present during a symposium on diabetes and mental health, PhD student François Thériault gave an oral presentation on social learning in mental health treatment, APEAL Lab alumnus Jen Dykxhoorn gave an oral presentation on migration and psychosis, and Dr. Colman gave two oral presentations as well. Way to go, team!

In their recent paper “Predictors of Suicidal Behaviors in Canadian Adolescents with No Recent History of Depression“, Murray Weeks and Ian Colman examine factors associated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempt in the absence of depressive symptoms. Among teenagers with no recent history of depression, substance use and chronic illness were associated with increased risk of suicidal behaviours.

Congratulations to Nathalie MacKinnon and Ian Colman on their recently published article in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Their study compared suicidal ideation in transition aged youth (ages 18-24) versus adults (ages 25-44). They found that suicidal ideation was more prevalent among transition aged youth than adults, and that depressed youth were less likely to have received professional help for their mental health. Their conclusions highlight the need for targeted interventions for youth as they face the novel stressors of this transitional age period.