RESEARCH INTO RECOVERY
Better evidence key to improving treatment
When we hear that a friend or family member has been diagnosed with cancer, the same questions always get asked.
“What kind of cancer?” “How serious is it?” “What’s the treatment?”
These questions can be tough to discuss with a loved one –– but they do generally have clear-cut answers. When it comes to a cancer diagnosis, we can, at the very least, take solace in the fact that science now has a great understanding of the types, causes and effects of this disease, and that medical research is advancing rapidly to develop new treatments and provide hope.
Now — do you know what you would ask if you learned that someone had instead been diagnosed with depression?
“What kind of depression?” “How serious is it?” “What’s the treatment?”
These are questions that we rarely hear when it comes to mental health.
Part of the reason for this is that science doesn’t yet have the answers.
Mental health treatment currently stands where cancer or heart disease treatment did decades ago.
There is still so much that we don’t know about the brain, its connections to the mind, and how things can go awry to cause mental illness.
We know that mental illness develops when there are ‘malfunctioning’ circuits in the brain, but we still need to understand why, when and how this is happening, in order to offer more personalized and effective care.
This is where research comes in. At The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR), affiliated with the University of Ottawa, our scientists are hard at work making innovative discoveries that are helping to close existing knowledge gaps, and are contributing to improved, evidence-based mental health care for individuals in our communities (and beyond).
Work led by Dr. Pierre Blier, director of our Mood Disorders Research Unit, for instance, offers hope to patients via a cutting-edge treatment that uses ketamine to effectively treat those who have been highly-resistant to typical anti-depressants. Together with Dr. Jennifer Phillips, associate scientist in the Mood Disorders Research Unit, Blier is also using the cutting-edge technology at our state-of-the-art Brain Imaging Centre to better understand the underpinnings of suicidal ideation.
Here at the IMHR, we are also focused on early prediction and intervention.
Just like we can forecast heart disease through cholesterol tests, or breast cancer through mammograms, our scientists are working to develop the capacity to prevent mental illness from developing in the first place.
Dr. JianLi Wang, director of the Work and Mental Health Research Unit, has developed a calculator for individuals to evaluate their personal risk level of developing depression in the next four years, so that they can take appropriate preventative measures if necessary.
Meanwhile, Dr. Zachary Kaminsky, DIFD Mach-Gaensslen Chair in Suicide Prevention Research, is developing an algorithm that uses artificial intelligence to predict suicide risk based on Twitter posts. The algorithm is still in its early days, but Kaminsky’s hope is that identifying risk will help lead to early intervention and fewer suicides, particularly in youth.
The IMHR is also using cutting-edge brain imaging techniques across its many areas of research to help develop more precise diagnostics for mental illness and guide more personalized interventions.
It has been incredibly encouraging in recent years to see public dialogue and government policies pushing for greater access to mental health care.
Now, if we are able to focus that support on the importance of research innovations, we can ensure that any increased services that are being rolled out are preventative, innovative, personalized and evidence-based, to meet the diverse needs of individuals within our communities.
Access, treatment, and outcomes are all strengthened by research.