ARCHIVED - Health Research - Investing in Canada's Future 2003-2004

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Mental Health

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada’s premier agency for health research.

Through CIHR, the Government of Canada is investing nearly $30 million each year in research on mental illness across Canada.

The Facts

• Mental illness is a broad classification for several disorders, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, personality disorders and eating disorders.
• One out of every five Canadians will have a mental health problem at some point in their lives.
• The onset of most mental illness occurs during childhood, adolescence and young adulthood.
• One in 100 Canadians suffers from schizophrenia and another one in 100 suffers from bipolar disorder, or manic depression; 8% of adults will experience major depression at some point in their lives, while 12% of the population is affected by anxiety disorders.
• Schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder are together responsible for more than 20% of years lived with a disability in established market economies.
• About 3% of women will be affected by an eating disorder during their lifetime.
• As a group, people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than to be violent themselves.
• The total cost of mental disorders, including stress and distress, was $14.4 billion in 1998.

Research

Improving Health

• A genetic flaw discovered in a family suffering from schizophrenia could help to explain the biochemical processes that lead to the disease. The CIHR-funded discovery was made by PhD graduate student Deepak Kamnasaran under the supervision of Dr. Diane Cox at the University of Alberta.
• More than a quarter of adolescent girls surveyed by CIHR-supported researcher Dr. Jennifer M. Jones, of Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital, had disordered eating behaviours and attitudes. Fifteen per cent reported binge eating, while 8.2% reported self-induced vomiting. Dieting was associated with an increased risk of binge eating and purging.
• Several genes that could play a role in both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have been identified by CIHR-funded researcher Dr. Michel Maziade, of Laval University, including genes linked to as many as five sub-types of schizophrenia. Dr. Maziade leads a team studying the genetics of complex mental disorder including alcoholism and autism as well as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
• Elevated levels of a hormone called cortisol, which the body produces in response to stress may be responsible for memory loss in the elderly, according to research by CIHR-funded researcher Dr. Sonia Lupien, of Montreal’s Douglas Hospital Research Center. Dr. Lupien has found that using medication can help reverse this memory loss, which is often linked to dementia. She has also found, however, that high levels of cortisol are linked to social isolation and lack of social support, suggesting that providing support to isolated elderly could be a away to improve memory without drugs. She is now examining personality factors that make people susceptible to stress.
• An international team of brain researchers led by CIHR-funded researcher Dr. Zul Merali, of the University of Ottawa, has found that, in people who commit suicide, two important neurotransmitters, or chemical signals, malfunction at the same time. Dr. Merali’s research suggests that drugs may need to target different systems than they currently do. His findings will also help doctors distinguish between depressed patients and those who are suicidal.
• People with bipolar disorder respond best to lithium when they have a genetically-based and more homogenous form of the disease, according to research conducted by CIHR-supported researcher Dr. Martin Alda of Dalhousie University. He has also found that diabetes is three times more prevalent in people with bipolar disorder than in the general population. In addition he has found and that bipolar patients with diabetes are less likely to respond well to treatment with lithium and more likely to commit suicide.
• Exposure therapy – where patients are exposed to prolonged and repeated images of trauma until the images no longer cause anxiety – may be more effective than other methods for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to research by CIHR Investigator Dr. Gordon Asmundson, of the University of Regina. Dr. Asmundson, who is leading a multi-disciplinary project to improve our understanding of the mechanisms of PTSD, in order to better treat it, studied battered women, who suffered from PTSD. He and his team found that the women responded better to exposure therapy than to two other treatments.

Research

Strengthening the health care system

• People with mental illness get better care if their family doctors work in collaboration with mental health professionals instead of working alone, according to research conducted by CIHR-supported researcher Dr. James Irvine, of the Saskatchewan Health Quality Council. Patients who receive “shared care” suffer fewer symptoms and are more likely to recover or be in remission at follow-up. Patients also prefer this type of treatment.
• Keeping mentally ill people in the community can work – but only if services are closely integrated, including health services and services that help meet basic needs such as housing, food and daily activities, according to a comparison of different networks available to help clients. The study, based in Quebec, was carried out by a team including CIHR-funded researcher Alain Lesage, of the Université de Montréal. It found that integration of services made a difference in meeting needs of users, the seriousness of their symptoms and their quality of life over a 12-month period.

The Institute

CIHR’s Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA), under the leadership of Scientific Director Dr. Rémi Quirion, is the lead Institute on mental health and mental illness issues. It supports research with the goal of reducing the burden of mental illness through prevention strategies, mental health promotion and the development of new methods of diagnosis, treatment, and the provision of support services. Among its priorities in the area of mental illness/mental health are the study of first episodes in mental illness and discrimination and stigma related to mental illness.

The Partners

CIHR recognizes the unique role of, and works closely with, all partners in the research process. INMHA is committed to developing collaborative partnerships to assist it in achieving its mandate. It has developed a partnership with Neurosciences Canada in several key areas, including regenerative medicine, as well as with the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation for a joint grant program on the neuro-biology of psychiatric disorders and addictions. Another important partner is the National Alliance for Autism Research in the United States, the first official partner from a non-governmental organization outside Canada. Together with the EJLB Foundation and the Royal Society of Canada, INMHA established the EJLB-CIHR Michael Smith Chair in Neurosciences and Mental Health. It has also partnered with the US Fogarty International Centre and the National Institutes of Health on a Program on Stigma and Global Health.

The People

Phil Upshall lost everything – his family, his job, and nearly his life – due to bipolar disorder.

In 1989, Mr. Upshall was a successful corporate and commercial lawyer.

Two years later, his life was in disarray. Following a suicide attempt, Mr. Upshall was hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He was also charged with fraud for investing clients’ money inappropriately, spent eight months in jail, and was disbarred. His marriage dissolved under the strain.

Today, he is Chair of the Canadian Alliance for Mental Illness and Mental Health, President of the Mood Disorders Society of Canada, and a member of the Institute Advisory Board of CIHR’s Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction. He is off medication completely and is engaged to be married in fall 2004.

He credits health research for helping him get back most of what he had lost.

“Research has made it possible for people like me to lead productive and normal lives,” he says. “More research raises awareness. It allows for a discussion for how we can fight mental illness in a positive way and alleviate the burden associated with mental health.”

About the Canadian Institutes of Health Research

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is the Government of Canada’s premier agency for health research. Its objective is to excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence, in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened Canadian health care system.

For more information, visit: www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca.