Our researchers know all about how difficult and intense grant competitions can be. Imagine, then, how satisfying it must feel to have a project accepted. That was the case for 47% of all projects submitted by Douglas researchers as part of last September’s competition (for which results have recently been published) of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the leading federal body for financing health research in Canada. This is a success rate that deserves to be commended, as it greatly surpasses most of the other research centres or universities in Canada, in addition to being well above the national average of 24.5%.

“I’m very proud of our researchers’ performance,” states Rémi Quirion, Ph.D., Scientific Director at the Douglas Hospital Research Centre. “Nine out of nineteen research projects submitted to the CIHR by researchers from here were awarded grants, for a grand total of six million dollars over five years.” These funds will help to support important mental health projects. Here they are:

Suicide projects (2 grants):

• Identifying genes that either alone or through interactions with other genes or environmental factors increase predisposition to suicidal behaviours, primarily suicide attempts.
• Identifying biological mechanisms that play a role in the predisposition to suicide.

Eating disorders:

• Studying the relationship between heredity and environmental factors with regards to the development of eating disorders.

The development of a designated area for epidemiological studies in psychiatry in southwest Montreal:

• Studying the interaction between the fundamental determining factors of mental health: poverty, life events, individual capabilities for managing stress and social support, local surroundings, social stigma and mental health services.

Intellectual handicaps in the field of forensic psychiatry:

• Identifying people with intellectual handicaps, who, following criminal or violent behaviours, end up in a forensic psychiatry environment, and determining their psychosocial and criminal specificities, as well as their needs in terms of services.

Analysis of mental health services:

• This study will provide valuable information about the proportion of disability attributable to depression/anxiety, chronic disorders or their combination.

Sleep disorders and attention deficit disorder:

• Studying the relationship between regulated sleep, attention and genetic factors.

First psychotic episodes:

• Evaluating the impact of a targeted intervention on reducing delay in treatment for first psychotic episodes.

Prenatal stress and the Ice storm of 1998: 

• The previous phases of this study demonstrated that children who were exposed to high levels of prenatal stress during the ice storm of 1998, experienced cognitive, physical and neuromotor development difficulties until the age of 6 1/2. This time, the objective is to determine if these difficulties persist until the age of ten.

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