Applied Psychiatric Epidemiology Across the Lifecourse

APEAL Lab members were in the spotlight at the 15th International Congress of the International Federation of Psychiatric Epidemiology, in Bergen, Norway. Dr. Colman delivered a plenary presentation entitled “Life-course epidemiology: early-life stress and implications for intervention”; Jen Dykxhoorn delivered an oral presentation on a project she did with Michael Martin entitled “Child abuse and the prevalence of suicide attempts among those reporting suicide ideation”; and Kiyuri Naicker presented a poster entitled “Type 2 diabetes and symptoms of depression and anxiety: Longitudinal associations with diabetes onset and mortality over 10+ years”. Way to go, team!

Congratulations to APEAL alumna Jen Dykxhoorn, who is heading to London this fall to begin her PhD at University College London. Jen was awarded the John Grace QC scholarship in Psychiatry by Mental Health Research UK. Under the supervision of Dr. James Kirkbride, Jen will be investigating the social and spatial determinants of psychotic disorders.

New research from the APEAL lab, in partnership with University College London, points to the effects of the neighbourhood social environment on adolescent mental health.

The paper, published in Psychological Medicine, examined neighbourhood social cohesion – a sense of community and trust among residents – at five timepoints from early childhood to preadolescence in a sample of over 5000 Canadian children. Changes in neighbourhood social cohesion throughout childhood were associated with different mental health outcomes in adolescence.

Overall, results suggested that children’s experience of social cohesion within their community may contribute to healthy social and emotional development.

Congratulations to first author Mila Kingsbury, as well as alumna Maeve Wickham and the rest of the APEAL team!

Click here to read the article in Psychological Medicine.

Congratulations to APEAL lab member Mila Kingsbury, whose abstract was selected as one of two oral presentations delivered at the annual conference of the Canadian Depression Research and Intervention Network (CDRIN). Dr. Kingsbury presented data from an ongoing lab project examining longitudinal associations between mothers’ exposure to stressful life events during pregnancy and offpring depression in adolescence.

Congratulations to APEAL lab alumna Maeve Wickham, whose first-author paper was recently published in Pediatrics.

Maeve graduated from the APEAL lab with an MSc in Epidemiology. Her paper, ‘Maternal Depressive Symptoms During Childhood and Risky Adolescent Health Behaviors‘, examined the relationship between mothers’ depressive symptoms and adolescents’ engagement in risky behaviours. Adolescents exposed to maternal depressive symptoms during middle childhood were more likely to use drugs and alcohol, engage in violent and nonviolent delinquent behavior, and have an earlier debut ages of cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and hallucinogen use.

The study has been covered by CBS News and the Huffinton Post.

Nice work, Maeve!