Applied Psychiatric Epidemiology Across the Lifecourse

In the article, “Child abuse and the prevalence of suicide attempts among those reporting suicide ideation,” published recently in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Michael Martin (lead author and APEAL Lab PhD student) and Jen Dykxhoorn (co-author and APEAL Lab MSc alumnus) conclude that most individuals who attempt suicide experience child abuse, and worse health and social functioning. Adopting a life-course perspective to understand trajectories of suicide risk factors may inform prevention and treatment. 

In his new article, entitled “A Developmental pathways linking childhood and adolescent internalizing, externalizing, academic competence, and adolescent depression”, published recently in Journal of Adolescence, Murray examines longitudinal pathways through three domains of adaptation from ages 4-5 to 14-15 (internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and academic competence) towards depressive symptoms at age 16-17.

Congratulations to PhD student Michael Martin, who published this month in the PLoS ONE journal. In the article, entitled “Yield and Efficiency of Mental Health Screening: A Comparison of Screening Protocols at Intake to Prison,” he compares the yield (i.e. newly detected cases) and efficiency (i.e. false positives) of five screening protocols to detect mental illness in prisons against the use of mental health history taking (the prior approach to detecting mental illness).The study found that roughly 40% of prisoners with mental illness were receiving services before incarceration. While screening can identify an additional 20-30% of inmates with previously undetected mental illness, there would be between 2-3 false positives for each newly identified case. 

Congratulations to Dr. Ian Colman, Director of the APEAL Lab, who was recently elected to be a Fellow of the American Psychopathological Association. The American Psychopathological Association (APPA), founded in 1910, is one of the oldest research organizations in North America. The APPA is devoted to the scientific investigation of disordered human behavior, and its biological and psychosocial substrates.

The APEAL Lab is hiring two senior research associates – one research psychologist and one epidemiologist/biostatistician – for an ongoing project on military mental health. The project is in partnership with the Department of National Defence.

The primary responsibility of the Senior Research Associates will be to act as lead researchers for several sub-projects on the epidemiology of mental illness in the Canadian military, using data from the Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey. The Senior Research Associates will work on location at the Department of National Defence, under the supervision of Dr. Colman (uOttawa) and Dr. Mark Zamorski (DND).

The successful candidates will have the opportunity to write first-author papers.

Responsibilities/Activities

• Independently lead studies of the epidemiology of military health using existing data sources, including:

1. Design study protocols
2. Design and implement advanced data analysis plans for projects
3. Lead discussion of implications of research results with research collaborators
4. Prepare conference presentations and written manuscripts for peer-review publication
5. Communicate with research collaborators to facilitate new study initiation and ongoing study completion

How to Apply

If you are interested in either position and meet the requirements listed below, please send an email to Dr. Ian Colman at icolman@uottawa.ca. Please include a cover letter, a CV and the contact details for three referees. We look forward to hearing from you.

Requirements

Education

• Master’s or doctoral degree in epidemiology, psychology, biostatistics, or equivalent is required.

Experience, skills and abilities

Experience with the following is necessary:

• 3-5 years experience as an independent researcher
• analyzing large epidemiological databases and interpreting results of these analyses
• using statistical software such as SPSS, Stata or SAS, with demonstrated abilities in data linkage, manipulation and statistical analysis.
• managing epidemiologic and/or statistical research projects from proposal writing to dissemination of results
• demonstrated leadership skills in collaborating with other researchers
• authoring peer-reviewed manuscripts

Experience with the following would be an asset:

• training in psychology or psychiatry
• research on military mental health
• psychometric analysis
• presenting research results at scientific conferences

In addition to the above data analysis skills, the following qualities are essential:

• must be conscientious in attention to detail
• must have effective oral and written communication skills in English
• must be able to work within time constraints
• must be able and willing to learn new data analysis techniques
• must be proactive and willing to take initiative, as well as to follow directions

Salary

Salary will be commensurate with experience

Term

12-month contract with possibility of renewal

Congratulations to PhD student Michael Martin, who published this month in the Journal of Correctional Health Care. His review, entitled “Diagnostic Error in Correctional Mental Health: Prevalence, Causes, and Consequences,” looked in depth at why diagnostic errors occur in jails and what are the implications on subsequent policies. Addressing questions like this help ensure cost-effective mental health services in correctional facilities and can help promote better outcomes for inmates with mental illness. 

Congratulations to our very own François Thériault who recently won The Robert Spasoff Award, the top prize for best PhD presentation at the annual University of Ottawa School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventative Medicine Student Research Day. His presentation was entitled “Mental Health Care as a Socially Learned Behaviour” and he presented preliminary results on help seeking behaviour as it correlates with family and friends’ own help seeking behaviour.

I hope he takes the lab out with his new prize money!