Leader: Lena Palaniyappan, MD, PhD
The YMHEI group consists of researchers working on mental health problems of youth including not only diagnosed conditions (psychotic disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, ADHD and other externalizing disorders, autism, and substance use disorders), but also high-risk conditions with a specific emphasis on prevention and early intervention.
This group takes a population-based approach aimed at identifying/researching the whole spectrum of risk and resilience factors leading to mental disorders, with the goal of translating findings into preventive and therapeutic interventions. Our motto is ‘improving care through research’ as already demonstrated through several well-established clinical programs (e.g. PEPP- Montreal, eating disorders, ADHD) and major clinical research projects (ACCESS Open Minds). We aim to include patients and their families in the design, implementation, and scaling-up research. We prioritize an integrated approach of identification of biomarkers for risk or disease states, outcomes, or response to treatments based on sophisticated imaging, physiological, and molecular techniques.
Research Program
The objectives of our program are:
- Identifying early risk /resilience factors, many of them have already been identified and are being studied by members of our group
- Study and understand the mechanisms by which these factors lead to symptoms and dysfunction
- Translate this knowledge into innovative preventive and therapeutic approaches.
Primary Researchers
Linda Booij
Eating Disorders Continuum
Mallar Chakravarty
Computational brain anatomy
Carl Ernst
Genetic and epigenetic variation associated with neurodevelopmental disorders
Marie-Claude Geoffroy
Longitudinal epidemiology of suicide and related mental disorders accross the lifespan and interventions to promote mental health
Natalie Grizenko
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder research
Mimi Israel
Eating disorders
Srividya N. Iyer
Youth mental health and early intervention for psychosis, in Canada and beyond
Ridha Joober
Genetics and pharmacogenetics of psychiatric disorders, Youth mental health and early intervention in psychotic disorders
Sherif Karama
Genetic and environmental effects on brain development across the lifespan and corollary impacts on cognition
Martin Lepage
CRISP group: Comprehensive research into schizophrenia and psychosis
Ashok Malla
First Episode, High Risk for Psychosis and Early Intervention and ACCESS Open Minds
Rachel Rabin
Neurocognitive and social cognitive function in individuals with substance use disorders and co-morbid psychiatric illness
Pablo Rusjan
Molecular Imaging, Positron Emission Tomography, Kinetic Modeling of PET radioligands, Clinical applications of PET in neuroscience, neurology and psychiatry
Jai Shah
Early intervention, first episode psychosis, at-risk mental states, youth mental health, clinical staging in psychiatry
Howard Steiger
Eating Disorders ProgramAssociated Researchers
Marie-Josée Fleury
Organisation and adequacy of mental health services
Cecilia Flores
Adolescent brain development and susceptibility to psychopathology
Suzanne King
Role of prenatal maternal stress in the development of psychopathology
Eric Latimer
Mental health policy and economic evaluation
Massimiliano Orri
Understanding the risk factors for suicidal behaviour across the lifespan
