Mental Health & Addiction
What are mental health and illness?
What is schizophrenia?
What advances in schizophrenia research have been made at the Brain Research Centre?
What are mood disorders and depression?
What advances in mood disorders and depression research have been made at the Brain Research Centre?
What are addictions?
Would you like to learn more about mental health and addiction?
Who researches mental health and addiction?
Would you like to support mental health and addiction research?
What are mental health and illness?
The diseases of the nervous system are becoming one of the most pressing social and medical challenges of the 21st century. Psychiatric diseases, particularly depression and schizophrenia, are the most expensive diseases and the largest contributors to chronic health care beds. Mental illness has devastating effects not only on those afflicted, but also on those who care about them. Together with the UBC Department of Psychiatry, the UBC Mood Disorders Centre, and the UBC Mental Health Institute, the Brain Research Centre is at the forefront of research into the biological mechanisms that underlie mental health and illness. We hope that by understanding the genetic and environmental factors that predispose to mental illnesses, and understanding the mechanisms of disorders within the brain, that we can develop new strategies to better treat, manage, and ultimately to prevent them.
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is one of the most devastating disorders, affecting approximately 1% of the population worldwide. In Canada, patients with schizophrenia currently occupy one in 12 hospital beds. The disease is characterized by both positive symptoms, including delusions, hallucinations, and disturbances of thought, and negative symptoms, which include loss of affect, catatonia, and immobility. Research has shown that there is a strong genetic component to schizophrenia. In identical twins, if one twin shows schizophrenia, the other twin has a 50% chance of developing the disease. While this is 50 times greater than the risk in the general population, and points to the importance of genetic factors, the fact that the risk is not 100% points to a role for environmental factors in the disease as well.
What advances in schizophrenia research have been made at the Brain Research Centre?
Centre members are using the newest techniques of genomics to identify genes whose function may be deregulated in schizophrenia. Related to this approach is an active program to discover anomalies that occur at brain connections in the brains of schizophrenics. In the last five years, Centre scientists have discovered a complex set of regulatory mechanisms that govern the way in which receptors are clustered at a particular synapse. We are now developing the tools to be able to control this process, promising a new approach to schizophrenia treatment. As well, we are using molecular methods to survey DNA from individuals affected with schizophrenia, their family members, and other unrelated and unaffected individuals in order to find gene variants associated with the disorder. These may have diagnostic utility or serve as targets for future generations of antipsychotic drugs.
Perhaps the most debilitating aspects of schizophrenia are the cognitive deficits, especially within the realm of working memory. Members of the Centre have been successful in developing sophisticated integrative theories of the detailed cellular mechanisms that underlie working memory dysfunction in the schizophrenic brain. In addition, we are using the most sophisticated tools of brain imaging to enable us to see which areas of the brain are malfunctioning.
What are mood disorders and depression?
Depression and mood disorders affect over one million Canadians. They can interfere with a person’s ability to work, study, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities. Depression and mood disorders do not discriminate across gender or age; children and the elderly, men and women, can all become depressed or suffer from mood disorders. While symptoms are different for each person, many of those afflicted do not seek treatment because they do not know that treatment is possible. Yet, without treatment, these diseases can lead to permanent disability.
What advances in mood disorders and depression research have been made at the Brain Research Centre?
The Centre is affiliated with the UBC Mood Disorders Centre, headed by Drs. Raymond Lam (Medical Director) and Lakshmi Yatham (Medical Director of the Clinical Research Unit). The mandate of the UBC Mood Disorders Centre is to improve the clinical care of people with mood disorders through education and research. Currently their studies involve people with depression, bipolar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder. Numerous members are involved in research with this affiliate and are leading the way in developing treatments for mental illnesses.
The Brain Research Centre is committed to furthering our understanding of depression and mood disorders. The Provincial Government donated $2.5 million through the Province’s Leading Edge Endowment Fund to create a Leadership Chair in Depression. Dr. Allan Young in the Department of Psychiatry was recruited from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne to UBC to take up this position. Dr. Young is internationally recognized for his study of the neuroendocrine system and its role in mood disorders, and as a pioneer in the application of brain imaging to the study of mental illness. As leadership chair, he conducts leading-edge research to translate neuroscience findings into effective clinical treatments. He joins a world-class cadre of scientists at the Centre, who are dedicated to identifying the mechanisms underlying mental illness and devising novel therapeutics to combat mental illness.
What are addictions?
According to Statistics Canada, one out of every ten Canadians aged 15 and over, about 2.6 million people, reported symptoms consistent with alcohol or illicit drug dependence in 2002. Substance dependence has serious medical and economic consequences with higher morbidity and shorter life expectancy than the general population, due in part to more chronic conditions, injuries, and suicide attempts. Addictions destroy lives, and treatments are imperative. The Centre is at the forefront of research into this area, and new developments offer promise and hope for those afflicted, by seeking to replace dependence with independence.
Would you like to learn more about mental health and addiction?
Download a two-page summary on mental health and addiction.
Who researches mental health and addiction?
M. Stella Atkins, MPhil, PhD School of Computing Science, Simon Fraser University
Jehannine Austin, PhD Department of Psychiatry / Department of Medical Genetics
Alasdair Barr, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Clare Beasley, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Stephanie Borgland, PhD Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Johann Brink, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Campbell Clark, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Sterling Clarren, MD Department of Pediatrics
Ann Marie Craig, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Kenneth Curry, PhD Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Adele Diamond, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Matthew Farrer, PhD Department of Medical Genetics
Stan Floresco, PhD Department of Psychology
Bruce B. Forster, MSc, MD Department of Radiology
Liisa Galea, PhD Department of Psychology
Dan Goldowitz, PhD Department of Medical Genetics
Peter Graf, PhD Department of Psychology
Kurt Haas, PhD Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences
Farsheed Hedayati Vala, MD Faculty of Medicine
Robert Holt, PhD Genome Sciences Centre
William G. Honer, MD, MSc Department of Psychiatry
Judy Illes, PhD Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine
Alan Kingstone, PhD Department of Psychology
Michael Kobor, PhD Department of Medical Genetics
Michael Krausz, MD Department of Psychiatry and School of Population & Public Health
Raymond Lam, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Jocelyne S. Lapointe, MD Department of Radiology
Frank Lee, PhD Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
David Li, MD Department of Radiology
Alex MacKay, MSc, PhD Department of Radiology / Department of Physics
Stuart Macleod, PhD Department of Medicine
Brian MacVicar, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Ann Martin-Matthews, PhD Department of Sociology
Gregory Miller, PhD Department of Psychology
Timothy H. Murphy, PhD Division of Neurological Sciences, Department of Psychiatry
Raad Nashmi, PhD Department of Biology, University of Victoria
Elton T.C. Ngan, MD, CM Department of Psychiatry
Robert A. Nugent, MD Department of Radiology
Paul Pavlidis, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Anthony G. Phillips, MA, PhD Department of Psychology
Catharine Rankin, MA, PhD Department of Psychology
Christian Schutz, MD, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Jeremy Seamans, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Terrance Snutch, PhD Department of Zoology
Weihong Song, MD, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Holly Tuokko, PhD Department of Psychiatry, University of Victoria
Steven R. Vincent, PhD Division of Neurological Sciences, Department of Psychiatry
Yu Tian Wang, MD, PhD Department of Medicine
Catharine Winstanley, PhD Department of Psychology
Todd Woodward, PhD Department of Psychiatry
Lakshmi Yatham, MB BS, DPM Department of Psychiatry
Would you like to support mental health and addiction research?
The Brain Research Centre is committed to advancing our knowledge of the brain and to exploring new discoveries and technologies which have the potential to reduce the suffering and cost associated with disease and injuries of the brain. We invite you to help us deliver on this commitment.
