Canadian researchers in schizophrenia who agreed to be part of the network
Tania Lecomte – Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, QC. Researcher at CR-IUSMM.
Interests and current studies: first episode and older, families, psychosocial treatments, CBT, ACT/third wave, social cognition, group therapy, supported employment/education, romantic relationship, comorbidity: social anxiety, substance misuse (meth), personality dis., teletherapy, avatars, virtual reality, mobile app, best practices implementation.
Dr. Clare Beasley - Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital.
Interests and current studies: changes in the brains of individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder that may elucidate the etiology of these disorders and provide clues to novel treatments; white matter pathology and inflammation; effects of antipsychotic medications on the brain.
Dr. Vina Goghari - Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough, ON.
Interests and current studies: neuroimaging, behavioural genetics (family studies), cognitive and affective experimental psychology, clinical assessment; causes, course and outcome, and treatment of psychosis; other disorders that present with cognitive deficits, including mood disorders and addictive disorders; understanding basic cognitive and affective processes in the healthy population.
Stéphane Potvin - Researcher at CRIUSMM, Montreal, QC. Aggregate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Addictology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, QC.
Interests and current studies: negative impacts of cannabis and alcohol on brain structures of individuals with schizophrenia; brain reward system; emotional processing in individuals with schizophrenia who abuse cannabis; modulation mechanisms of the affective component of pain; fMRI.
Donna Lang - Associate Professor, Department of Radiology, Division of Neuroradiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
Interests and current studies: Neuroimaging; Cognition; Symptom Severity and Effects of Exercise and/or Addictions in Schizophrenia; Hippocampal plasticity, exercise and chronic schizophrenia; Interactions of psychosis, addiction and infections; Obstetric and developmental histories in a community sample of persons aged 16-45 diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Martin Lepage - James McGill Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC. Researcher/Clinical Psychologist, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC.
Interests and current studies: Neurocognitive and neuroimaging markers of remission in first episode psychosis; Biological and psychological determinants of insight in schizophrenia; Cognitive behavioural therapy for social anxiety in psychosis; Cognitive remediation therapy in schizophrenia; Cognitive neuroscience of episodic memory in schizophrenia; MRI and fMRI.
Amélie Achim - associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Quebec, QC. Researcher at CERVO.
Interests and current studies: cognitive processes involved in social interactions; social interactions and cognitive difficulties in individuals with schizophrenia; social cognition and mental disorders (schizophrenia, anxiety, personality disorders); neurobiological bases of social cognition; referential communication and Theory of Mind; involvement of social cognition and communication to support good collaboration; neurobiological bases of referential communication; test development and validation; remediation of Theory of Mind and other social cognition and communication abilities.
Caroline Cellard - associate Professor, School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Laval, Quebec, QC. Researcher at CRUJeF and CERVO.
Interests and current studies: cognitive remediation in young persons with schizophrenia, supported education program, cognitive functioning in schizophrenia, the impact of maltreatment on cognitive functioning, access to healthcare in young persons with mental health problems.
Marc-André Roy - associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Université Laval, Quebec, QC. Researcher and clinical psychiatrist at Notre-Dame des Victoires Clinic.
Interests and current studies: schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders; development and evaluation of novel approaches for the treatment of schizophrenia and psychotic disorders; comorbidities in psychotic disorders.
Marie-France Demers - Assistant Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université Laval, Quebec, QC. Research associate at CERVO. Pharmacist at IUSMQ.
Interests and current studies: first psychosis episodes; systematic evaluation of the usage of psychotropic substances; treatment optimization; negative effects of antipsychotic drugs; comorbidities associated with psychosis; treatment adherence.
Christopher Bowie - Professor, Department of Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON.
Interests and current studies: neurocognition in psychosis; functional outcomes in psychotic disorders; novel behavioral assessment methods; early intervention and severe mental illness; pharmacological and behavioral treatment of cognitive deficits.
Jean Addington - Professor of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, AB. Novartis Chair in Schizophrenia Research
Interests and current studies: early detection of psychosis, examination of predictors and mechanisms of developing psychosis, psychosocial interventions for those at risk of psychosis, focus on youth with psychosis.
Farooq Naeem - Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, ON. Chief, General Adult and Health Systems Psychiatry at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health. Cognitive Behaviour Therapist.
Interests and current studies: CBT, psychosis and culture: culturally adapting CBT; improving access to CBT; CBT based therapy program that can be delivered through web and smart phone apps; health systems; Lean thinking and quality improvement.
Todd Woodward - Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. Research Scientist at BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Institute. Centre Investigator at Brain Research Centre, UBC.
Interests and current studies: cognitive operations underlying the primary symptoms of psychosis and schizophrenia; functional and anatomical understanding of the cognitive systems involved in psychosis and schizophrenia; new multivariate methods for analyzing fMRI data; integrating information from fMRI, EEG and MEG.
Catherine Briand - Professor, Department of Ergotherapy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.
Interests and current studies: severe mental illness; recovery; psychosocial rehabilitation; lived experience of families; Family Peer Support Services intiative.
Sabina Abidi - Associate Professor, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS. Child/Adolescent psychiatrist. Head, IWK Health Centre Youth Psychosis Program.
Interests and current studies: children/youth psychosis and psychotic spectrum disorders; early Intervention for those at risk for psychotic disorders; pharmacotherapy for youth with psychotic disorders and comorbid psychiatric illness; transitions between CAMHS and AMHS; health systems infrastructure and Lean methodologies.
Phil Tibbo
Professor and Dr Paul Janssen Chair in Psychotic Disorders , Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS.
Director, Nova Scotia Early Psychosis Program.
President, Canadian Consortium for Early Intervention in Psychosis (CCEIP)
Interests and current studies: addictions; schizophrenia; magnetic resonance spectroscopy
(MRS); first episode psychosis; early interventions; diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); clinical
research; brain imaging; genetics; non-pharmacological treatment options for schizophrenia.
Jai Shah - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC. Psychiatrist and researcher at the Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychosis (PEPP-Montreal) at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and McGill University. Investigator with the ACCESS-Canada network for youth mental health.
Interests and current studies: clinical care for patients in the early phases of psychotic illness (including at-risk populations); early intervention strategies and the design and delivery of youth mental health services; neurobiological and social/environmental factors in psychosis.
Srividya Iyer - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC. Clinician and researcher at the Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychosis (PEPP-Montreal). Scientific-Clinical Director, ACCESS-Canada.
Interests and current studies: Development, implementation, and evaluation of models to increase youth access to timely, appropriate and engaging care; Early intervention, particularly for serious mental health problems such as psychosis: service models, care pathways, outcomes and predictors; Sociocultural context and its influence on services, outcomes and stakeholder roles in the context of early intervention.
Mahesh Menon - Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UBC. Psychologist, BC Psychosis Program.
Interests and current studies: Psychosocial interventions- (particularly MCT, CBT, CRT) for psychosis and SMI. Cognitive biases and neural correlates of delusions and hallucinations.
Mike Best - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough.
Interests and current studies: Psychosocial intervention, CBT, cognitive remediation, cognitive training, mobile technologies, EEG, social exclusion, stigma.
Aristotle Voineskos - Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, ON. Director of the Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition. Head of the Kimel Family Translational Imaging-Genetics Laboratory in the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at CAMH.
Interests and current studies: multi-modal neuroimaging and genetics approaches to map gene effects on brain circuitry; vulnerability pathways for severe mental illness using a lifespan approach; early identification and interventions for young people with emerging mental illness.
Kelly Anderson - Assistant Professor, Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Psychiatry, Western University; Adjunct Scientist, ICES.
Interests and current studies: epidemiology of psychotic disorder, psychotic disorder among migrant groups, social determinants of psychosis, access to care and health services utilization for first-episode psychosis, early intervention services, long-term outcomes, health administrative data, systematic reviews & meta-analysis.
Pierre Orban - Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Montreal, QC. Researcher at CRIUSMM.
Interests and current studies: schizophrenia; transdiagnostic approach; cerebral connectivity; fMRI; TMS; machine learning algorithms.
Lena Palaniyappan - Associate Professor/MD, Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, ON.
Interests and current studies: Investigating the pathophysiology of psychosis and translating neuroimaging advances to clinical practice.
Clairelaine Ouellet-Plamondon - Adjunct Professor of Clinical Practice, Department of Psychiatry, University of Montreal, QC. Psychiatrist at the CHUM Psychiatry and Toxicomania Unit, and at the JAP Clinic. Researcher at CR-CHUM.
Interests and current studies: neurosciences; psychiatry; youth-mental health continuum.
Marie-Hélène Morin - Professor, Department of Psychosociology and Social Work, Université du Québec à Rimouski, QC.
Interests and current studies: schizophrenia and psychotic disorders; first psychotic episodes; rehabilitation and recovery in mental health; family intervention.
Laurence Roy - Assistant Professor, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, QC. Researcher at Douglas Mental Health University Institute.
Interests and current studies: community-based occupational therapy; psychosocial rehabilitation; housing and homelessness; mental health; recovery and community integration.
Ridha Joober - Professor, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC. Director, Research Program on Psychotic and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Douglas Mental Health University Institute. Director, Program of Early intervention and Prevention of Psychoses (PEPP-Montreal). Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience.
Interests and current studies: genetics and pharmacogenetics of psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder in children and autism); underlying biology of mental illness diagnoses and treatments; neuroimaging techniques; effects of environmental factors on brain development and functioning in patients with psychiatric neurodevelopmental disorders; first psychotic episode.
Donald Addington - Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, AB. Member of the Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute.
Interests and current studies: access and quality of mental health services with a particular focus on schizophrenia and early psychosis intervention.
Clifford Cassidy - Assistant Professor, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, ON. Associate Researcher, Douglas Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC. Scientist at The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research.
Interests and current studies: neuroimaging; understanding the relationship between brain activity and behaviour; cognitive and affective processes that underlie psychopathology; develop biomarkers to predict clinical outcomes; dopamine and noradrenaline neurotransmitter systems.
Synthia Guimond - Assistant professor, Department of Psychoeducation and Psychology, University of Québec in Outaouais, Department of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa
Scientist, The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research.
Interests and current studies: Cognition, cognitive remediation therapy and digital technologies.
Shelly Ben-David- Assistant professor, Department of Social Work, University of British Columbia Okanagan.
Interests and current studies: clinical high risk phase of psychosis & first-episode psychosis; mental health service use decision-making; gender and race differences in service use; early intervention in mental health; identity interventions in the early stages of psychosis & mixed-methods research.
Todd Girard - Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Ryerson University.
Interests and current studies: Cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging; neuropsychology; memory; hallucinations, delusions; virtual reality.
Jacques Bruno Debruille - Associate professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC. Associate Member, Department of Neurology, McGill University. Attending Psychiatrist, out-patient clinic of the psychotic disorders program of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute (DMHUI).
Interests and current studies: social, neurophysiological and physical mechanisms of the production of conscious contents in the perceptual, ideational, decisional and motor domains in humans according to their personality traits; EEG; effects of antipsychotic medications on cognition.
Anne-Noël Samaha - Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, QC.
Interests and current studies: neurobiological, psychological and behavioral bases of toxicomania; comorbidity between schizophrenia and toxicomania; reinforcement learning.
Jean-François Pelletier - Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Addictology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, QC. Assistant Clinical Professor, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Interests and current studies: participatory action research in mental health; experiential knowledge; mechanisms promoting the participation of individuals using psychiatric services in mental health research; social and cultural psychiatry; schizophrenia.
Marie-Josée Fleury - Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC. Researcher, Douglas Mental Health University Institute Research Centre.
Interests and current studies: public health, evaluation of services, best practices implementation, needs assessment, service utilization, healthcare system analysis, performance indicators, and patient outcomes; patients with common and serious mental disorders, substance use disorders, and homelessness population.
Lourdès Rodriguez Del Barrio - Professor, School of Social Work, University of Montreal, QC. Director of ERASME and ARUCI-SMC.
Interests and current studies: citizenship practices and subjectivation; democratisation of social practices; community practices and services; evaluative research; process of stigma and social exclusion.
Robert Zipursky - Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, ON.
Interests and current studies: investigation of structural brain abnormalities that underlie schizophrenia and other psychiatric illnesses; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); optimizing the treatment of first episode schizophrenia; characterizing the outcomes from schizophrenia and their determinants; developing interventions to improve outcomes.
Tom Ehmann - Consulting Psychologist at Vancouver Psychology Consortium, BC.
Interests and current studies: psychological assessment; psychopathology; treatment; schizophrenia; psychosis; psychotic disorders; first episode psychosis.
Naista Zhand - Psychiatrist at the Schizophrenia and Recovery Program, The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, ON.
Interests and current studies: cannabis use and schizophrenia; self-harm in child and adolescent psychiatric patients; treatment of schizophrenia; pharmacotherapeutic management of insomnia in cannabis withdrawal.
Amal Abdel-Baki - Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Addictology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, QC.
Interests and current studies: child and adolescent youth mental health and psychopathology; toxicomania; first episode psychosis, schizophrenia; mood disorders; comorbid substance use disorders, factors associated with outcomes, quality of life, suicidality, violence, vocational recovery, psychosocial interventions
Manuela Ferrari - Research Associate at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal, QC. Adjunct Professor at School of Health Policy and Management, York University, Toronto, ON.
Interests and current studies: arts-based learning (e.g., digital-stories, digital-vignettes, video game narratives) and its potential in shaping identity development, client-provider relationships, clinical practices, and, broadly, health education scholarship.
Lauri Tuominen - Neuroscientist at The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR), affiliated with the University of Ottawa, ON.
Interests and current studies: neurobiological basis of post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia using the IMHR’s new combined PET and MRI imaging capability; development of new treatments for these mental illnesses; role of stress and trauma in mental health disorders.
Robert Walter Heinrichs - Professor, Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON.
Interests and current studies: schizophrenia and severe mental illness; neuropsychological aspects of schizophrenia; rehabilitation; cognition disorders; neuropsychological assessment.
David Attwood - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, ON. Clinical Director, Integrated Schizophrenia and Recovery Program, Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. Psychiatrist, Royal Ottawa Health Care Group.
Interests and current studies: treatment of schizophrenia; outcomes of the consent and capacity board with schizophrenia spectrum illness; duty to warn for potential risk of psychological harm.
Chris Summerville - Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health Studies, Brandon University, MB. CEO, Schizophrenia Society of Canada. CEO, Manitoba Schizophrenia Society.
Interests and current studies: canadian practice guidelines for comprehensive community treatment for schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
Michael Bodnar - Scientist at The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR), affiliated with the University of Ottawa, ON.
Interests and current studies: developing novel, individualised psychological therapies for people with schizophrenia and the related psychoses, with a particular focus on the negative symptoms; MRI scanning; brain changes in relation to receiving various treatments for negative symptoms.
Luc Vigneault - Patient Research Partner, CAP-Recovery at CERVO. Patient Research Partner, Réseau-1 Québec, Université Laval, Quebec, QC. Peer Support Worker.
Interests and current studies: schizophrenia.
Barna Konkoly Thege – research and clinical psychologist, Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care & assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.
Interests and current studies: psychosocial interventions for severe mental illness, nutritional interventions for mental illness, CBT for psychosis (CBTp), integration of CBTp and psychodynamic therapies, patient-oriented research
Marco Solmi - Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa
Dr Solmi works clinically with acute presentations of schizophrenia in the inpatient unit of The Ottawa Hospital for 60% of his time. His research focuses on clinically relevant questions, and is focused on prevention/early intervention for psychosis, physical health in those with schizophrenia, and psychopharmacology. He has extensively applied meta-research techniques, and worked on large cohort studies.
Dan Devoe – Post-Doctoral Fellow, Departments of Psychiatry and Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, AB.
Interests and current studies: Standardization of patient reported outcomes and clinician reported outcomes in clinical high risk and first episode programs. Peer support for individuals with psychosis. Large databases, health administration data, mobile apps, and systematic reviews & meta-analysis.
Colin Hawco, PhD (McGill) Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. Independent Scientist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Interests: Functional neuroimaging, cognition, individual variability, schizophrenia, transcranial magnetic stimulation
Derek Fisher, PhD - Associate Professor, Department of psychology, Mount Saint Vincent University
Interest: Over the past decade, Dr Fisher has implemented a research program to investigate cognitive and perceptual processes in psychosis/schizophrenia using EEG in collaboration with the Nova Scotia Early Psychosis Program. This has included several studies focused on how auditory hallucinations (AH) impact early information processing within schizophrenia, including whether AH-related alterations in pre-conscious auditory change detection processes are present early in the illness progression. Current work endeavours to expand on these previous projects by using ERPs (such as the mismatch negativity) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) in an effort to identify potential predictors of psychosis onset in ultra high risk adolescents
Kaarina Kowalec, PhD
Assistant Professor, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba
Affiliated, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Research Interests: Genetics and epidemiology of schizophrenia; genetic markers of treatment resistance and poor outcomes in schizophrenia.
Jean Manneville Jr. Theagene
Peer-supporter/kinesiologist
Jean has 25 years of experience as a personal trainer with different clienteles, which gives him a very diversified experience in the field of physical activity. He completed a Masters in Kinesiology at UDEM in December 2020. In addition to his knowledge of physical activity, Jean is a certified Peer Helper from AQRP and Peer Support Canada. Jean is the initiator and facilitator of the Telekinesiology group (Training by videoconference) a service still offered 3/week to this day by the JAP clinic. Jean has been dealing with a mental health problem for 20 years and his experience as an affected person can certainly serve as a model of recovery for many users. Its main engine of recovery is through physical activity. One of Jean's great aspirations is to encourage young adults with psychosis to take charge of their mental and physical health so that they, like him, find balance in their lives.