Newsletter Feb 2005

FEBRUARY 2005
breaking through
The Internal Newsletter of the IMHR
Inaugural IMHR Newsletter
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the University of
Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research
Newsletter. This communication which will be offered
bi-monthly, will highlight news and information that is
intended to educate, stimulate, and inform the reader
of the new developments at our Institute. As such, we
will describe some of our research successes, identify
funding sources and submission deadlines, and
highlight current research projects. By highlighting
our successes and by identifying the research
networks, tools and services, it is hoped that our
organization may grow further. As such, we welcome
any and all feedback from you the reader. Particularly
relevant questions will be highlighted in future
editions in a section that we have uniquely entitled
“IMHR Q & A”. So please, sit back and relax with this
informative newsletter, and if you have any
suggestions, please do not hesitate to let us know.
In this Issue …
• Inaugural IMHR Newsletter
• Funding Success
• Grant Opportunities & Deadlines
• The IMHR Research Ethics
Board (REB)
• Research Symposium Announcements
• Looking toward the future …
Clinical Depression Symposium
‘Treatment Resistant Depression: Metabolic
“Differential Diagnosis”, Imaging Predictors,
and Newer Augmentation- and Receptor-Based
Treatment Strategies’.
Led by four distinguished researchers, Dr. Pierre Blier, Research
Director of the Mood Disorders Unit of the IMHR, and
Canadian Research Chair holder, Dr. Robert Kraus of the
Royal Ottawa Hospital, Dr. Krishnan of the Duke University
Medical Center, and Dr. Joffe of the New Jersey Medical
School, this symposium will be presented at the CINP/CCNP
congress in July 2006.
For more details, see page 3.
Funding Successes
The IMHR is very pleased to announce the success of
our researchers in the most recent Canadian Institutes
of Health Research (CIHR) round of funding
competition.
The CIHR is the major federal agency responsible for
funding health research in Canada. It aims to excel in
the creation of new health knowledge, and to translate
that knowledge from the research setting into real
world applications.
Congratulations to Dr. Zul Merali, Dr. Lisheng Du,
and Dr. Paul Fedoroff, whose combined research proposals
have been awarded approximately $1,600,000!
See page 2 to find out more about each award.
PAGE 1

Funding Successes (cont’d)
Role of peptides in the regulation of food intake:
Relationship to stress (PI: Zul Merali)
Awarded $134,644 for each of 5 yrs (total $673,220)
For this research project, Dr. Merali will assess how
hormone-like molecules (peptides) influence brain
mechanisms regulating food ingestion as well as
responses to stressors. In particular, Dr. Merali will
focus on a new family of peptides called bombesinlike
peptides (BB-LPs) as well as corticotrophin
releasing hormone (CRF), both of which influence
stress- and ingestive-responses. This line of inquiry
is driven by the working hypothesis that under
physiological conditions, specific BN-LPs may be
released to provoke the release of CRH and related
(urocortin) peptides to bring about meal termination.
However, in response to stressor exposure, a
different spectrum of BN-LPs will be activated,
provoking the release of CRH to bring about
suppression of appetite and to prepare the organism
to cope with the stressor. Together, these studies
promise to greatly expand our understanding of the
neuronal mechanisms regulating the initiation,
maintenance and/or termination of a meal.
Furthermore, these studies will also permit insights
into the mechanisms by which the satiety-pathways
and the stress-pathways interact, which may be
relevant to various dysfunctions of human ingestive
behavior, including anorexia nervosa, anorexia
nervosa associated with AIDS, cancer, sickness or
stress, bulimia nervosa, and obesity.
Dysregulated GABA-A, CRH and 5HT receptor
mRNA expression in human depression and
suicide (PI: Michael Poulter, Co-Investigators: Hymie
Anisman, Lisheng Du, Zul Merali)
Awarded $123,862 for each of 5 yrs (total $619,310)
Suicide is among one of the highest causes of death
in adults between the ages of 18 and 35. Although
usually associated with depression we know very
little about its origins. Stress seems to be a factor,
but our knowledge of how the neurochemical
changes caused by stress come to affect behavior are
poorly understood. The aim of this research project
is to study the gene expression in normal brain and
in brains that have been obtained at autopsy after
suicide or accidental death. Our previous work has
shown a misorchestration of gene expression in
suicide brain. The research proposed here will extend
these findings and attempt to understand how the
genes are regulated and how various mechanisms (or
their disruption) may account for this
discoordination. This work is expected to generate
new insight into the origins of suicidality and predict
new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of the
kind of severe depression that leads to suicide.
Human rights and health self-advocacy training
for people who have intellectual disabilities: A
multi-systemic, interdisciplinary approach
(PI: Maurice Feldman, Co-Investigators: Frances
Owen, Dorothy Griffiths, Leslie Atkinson, Paul
Fedoroff, Glenys McQueen-Fuentes, Carol Sales,
Christine Tardif, and Donato Tarulli)
Awarded $101,917 for each of 3 yrs (total $305,751)
Although strides have been made in the
empowerment of people with intellectual disabilities
(ID), key gaps remain that prevent them from fully
accessing the rights available to all citizens, notably
those of human rights. Every day people with ID
have their rights restricted or contravened, and may
include invasion of privacy, financial and sexual
exploitation, unwarranted removal of parenting/
personal rights, and unjust incarceration. People
with ID have at least twice the risk of victimization
compared to those without disabilities, thereby
elevating their risk of experiencing the mental and
physical health sequelae of maltreatment.
Individuals with ID may feel powerless and not even
understand their right not to suffer abuse and
neglect. One area of rights violation of persons with
ID is equitable access to proper medical treatment.
Persons with ID are often unaware of when they are
given treatments without their consent,
discriminated against, or when their right to
adequate medical treatment is withheld. Many lack
the skills to identify health rights violations and
assert their rights. Little research has focused on
teaching them to recognize and respond to human
rights restrictions and violations. The objectives of
the present research project is to develop and test a
specialized training unit that focuses on rights in the
specific context of health self-advocacy and informed
consent using innovative instructional strategies
including drama in education techniques and
multimedia interactive technology.
PAGE 2

Royal Ottawa Health Care Group
Research Ethics Board Members
Chair: Dr. Alan Douglass
Psychiatrist, Director, Sleep Clinic, ROH
Vice-Chair: Dr. Paul Fedoroff
Psychiatrist, Forensic, ROH
Dianne Blackburn
Social Worker, Addictions, ROH
Dr. Pierre Blier
Psychiatrist, Mood Disorders
Dr. Dominique Bourget
Psychiatrist, Forensic/Schizophrenia,
ROH
Dr. Nancy Brookes, RN, PhD
Clinical Scientist, Nursing, ROH
Dr. Verner Knott, Psychologist
Mood Disorders, ROH
Dr. Robert Kraus
Psychiatrist, Mood Disorders, ROH
Stephen Layton
Pharmacist, Director, Pharmacy, ROH
Grace McBride
Chaplain, ROH
Dr. Robert Milin
Psychiatrist, Child Psychiatry, ROH
Nancy Millson
Community Representative
Dr. Pamela Prince
Psychologist, BPH
Non-voting members
Dr. Keith Busby
Coordinator, ROHCG REB
Heidi Vulin
Administrative Assistant, ROHCG REB
Introducing …
The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group
Research Ethics Board
The Research Ethics Board (REB) of the Royal Ottawa Hospital
Health Care Group (ROHCG) is an integral component of the
success of IMHR researchers. The board meets on a monthly basis
to review proposed research projects to ensure that they adhere to
the highest ethical standards of scientific research. These
standards protect not only the study participants but the research
team as well.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank the members and to
recognize their most valuable contribution to the success of the
IMHR and its researchers.
REB evaluation and decisions are governed by the Tri-Council
Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans
(TCPS) and by the Good Clinical Practice: Consolidated Guidelines
(GCP). Should any questions arise as to what constitutes research
and whether the research is eligible for review by the REB, queries
may be directed to Dr. Keith Busby, Research Ethics Coordinator,
at 722-6521 ext. 6214.
Symposium (cont’d)
Segment 1: presentation of a “differential diagnosis” of Treatment-Resistant
Depression. Data from a recent large prospective
study will show that at least 25% of such patients have at least
one or more previously-unsuspected metabolic abnormalities of
types known to produce depressive syndromes. An equally large
proportion of patients are found to be rapid or ultra-rapid metabolizers
of antidepressants - achieving remission once therapeutic
range antidepressant levels were attained.
Segment 2: data will be presented from a Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI) study of white matter hyperdensities (WMHs) in
geriatric depressed patients, pre- and post-treatment.
Segment 3: the various proposed augmentation strategies of
failed antidepressant treatment will be critically reviewed. The
development of an evidence-based approach to the management
of antidepressant failure will be stressed. This will be followed by
a discussion of therapeutic mechanisms theorized to underlie the
major augmentation strategies: combining two or more antidepressants,
and lithium or thyroid augmentation of serotonergic
agents.
Segment 4: a review of the complex reciprocal interactions at the
cell body level between the actions of selective serotonin (5-HT)
neurons and the norepinephrine (NE) system.
PAGE 3

Showcasing the Success of the IMHR
The success of a research institute and its researchers
is determined primarily by two factors: funding, specifically
peer-reviewed, and; publications (i.e. the communication
of research results in a number of different
forums).
$ (in 1000's)
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
IMHR Funding (2001-2004)
Funding: The ability to attract funding from a variety
of external granting agencies and industry partnerships
enhances the reputation of the IMHR and
ROHCG as institutions of scholarship and supports
the drive toward being a centre of excellence in research,
research training, education, and clinical service
delivery. Total funding from external sources has
increased 258% from what it was in 2001.
Publications are primarily influenced by research
activity across a diverse core of research programs
as are scientific communications made
locally, nationally and internationally. As shown
below, the number of peer-reviewed papers published
by our researchers has more than doubled
since 2001.
IMHR Publications (2001-2004)
1000
0
2001 2002 2003 2004
# Publications
Industry Peer-Review ed Total
Grant Opportunities & Deadlines
The National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression
(NARSAD)
• Young Investigator Award: Materials will be available in
April, 2005. The application deadline will be July 25, 2005
• Independent Investigator Award: Materials will be
available in January, 2005. Applications are due March 4,
2005
• Distinguished Investigator Award: Materials will be
available in March, 2005. Applications (letters of intent) are
due May 15, 2005, with a grant start date of May 1, 2006.
Applications will not be accepted prior to April 1, 2005.
Looking toward the future …
As our inaugural newsletter draws to a
close, we would like to thank you for taking
the time to inform and educate yourselves
as to what the IMHR is all about. In
future editions, we hope to bring you more
information on research-related activities.
Should you have any questions or comments,
or would like to submit ideas for
this newsletter, please contact us by email
at: ddelugt@rohcg.on.ca
EJLB Foundation of Montreal (Schizophrenia & Mental Illness)
• Letter of intent (LOI) due on May 2 nd , 2005.
• To be eligible, you must have be faculty member of a Canadian
University, and have received your first academic appointment
within the last 7 years
See us online at:
www.rohcg.on.ca/intranet
Go to Newstands > Breaking Through
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