Tamara Vanderwal

Dr. Vanderwal received her M.D. from Yale School of Medicine, and completed residency, fellowship and research training at the Yale Child Study Center. Her research mentors were Robert T. Schultz, Linda C. Mayes and F. Xavier Castellanos (and team). She also has a Master’s degree from Yale Divinity School, with a concentration in ethics. Dr. Vanderwal’s work combining neuroscience and art has been featured at the Imagine Science Film Festival and at MoMA Studios. She is currently the managing guest editor for the special issue/saga on Naturalistic Imaging for NeuroImage. She also continues to practice as a child psychiatrist, seeing kids in northern BC.

Source

The Naturalistic Neuroimaging Lab uses movies to study complex patterns of brain function in child psychiatric disorders. Using movies helps us study children who have a hard time staying still inside the MRI machine. The movies also enable us to study the brain as it processes complex, dynamic streams of information like it does in real life. This approach is similar to having a patient run on a treadmill while studying that person’s heart function. We design and test movies to evoke specific symptoms or types of cognitive processes, and are developing novel analyses to leverage the unique kind of data we acquire using movies in functional MRI.

Peer-reviewed publications

Contributing Editor (2014-2017), The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Junior Investigator Award
• Resident Teaching Award, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine
• Yale Psychiatry Research Scholar, Yale School of Medicine

Dr. Evelyn Stewart is a tenured, academic-track Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia and is the founding director of the Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Clinic and Research Program as well as the Chair of the Child and Youth Mental Health Research at BC Children and Women’s Health Centre. She is a clinical, genetic and neuroscience researcher, as well as a child and adolescent psychiatrist.

Her research focuses on biologic, phenotypic, familial, and treatment aspects of childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Dr. Stewart has authored over 150 original papers, reviews, and chapters on genetic, clinical, and treatment aspects of OCD, Tourette’s Disorder, and related illnesses. She sits on the Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board of the International OCD Foundation and is the vice chair of the Research and Scientific Program Committee for Canadian Academic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

At BCCHR, her leadership contributions include being Research Director of the BCCH Mental Health program, the BCCH Mindfulness Centre and the BCCH Research Institute’s Brain, Behaviour and Development theme.

Source

Adjunctive Celecoxib in childhood-onset OCD (ACEOCD) study: The goal of this study is to determine the effects of the anti-inflammatory medication celecoxib – when added to participants’ usual treatment(s) – on OCD symptoms over 12 weeks. Celecoxib belongs to a medication class called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). A common NSAID that many children have taken previously is ibuprofen, but it requires several doses per day to effectively reduce inflammation whereas celecoxib is taken only twice daily. NSAIDs may improve the function of parts of the brain involved in OCD symptoms.

Genetic Architecture of Youth Anxiety Study (GAYA): Anxiety disorders can significantly interfere with youth’s lives, so it is important to better understand how and why these disorders develop through mechanisms like genetics. To better understand the development of anxiety disorders among youth, we need to include larger samples of youth in current genetic research. The GAYA study represents a Pan-Canadian effort of clinical and genetic experts with recruitment sites in Vancouver, Calgary, Hamilton, Toronto, and Halifax. The study is funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research.

Personal Impacts of COVID-19 Survey (PICS): In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team is interested in learning about the personal impacts it has made on families and individuals. We have created a survey to capture information about the effect COVID-19 has had on individuals’ thoughts, feelings and actions, along with their coping mechanisms and any resources available to them.

As PI:

• Adjunctive Celecoxib in childhood-onset OCD (ACEOCD)
• Personal Impacts of COVID-19 in child and adolescents
• Biomarkers of stress and inflammation in youth with OCD and their parents participating in Group-based Family Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Registry and DNA Repository
  Clinical Outcomes following Group-based Family Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy in Pediatric Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
• Mindfulness Training versus Peer Support Groups for Parents of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Youth OCD Diagnosis Disclosure

As Co-Investigator:

• Genetic Architecture of Youth Anxiety Study
• OCD genomics

View publications

• 2023 Awarded 2023 Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Service to the University and Community, University of British Columbia
• 2023 Nominated for Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) fellowship.
• 2022 Nominated for YWCA Women of Distinction Award Program, YWCA Metro Vancouver
• 2022 Awarded Top Cited Article for, “An overview of the first 5 years of the ENIGMA obsessive-compulsive disorder working group: The power of worldwide collaboration,”
• Wiley Publication, USA
• 2021 Awarded BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute Geoffrey L. Hammond Lectureship, BC Hospital Research Institute
• 2021 Awarded Genius Bar Award, Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
• 2018 UBC Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Clinical or Applied Research
• 2017 Norbert and Charlotte Rieger Award for Scientific Achievement American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Academic background: MD from Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, Germany, PhD from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany and MPH from Johns-Hopkins -University, Baltimore MD. Fellowship at NIDA/NIH, Baltimore MD (Behavioral Pharmacology), sabbatical at Yale University, New Haven, CT (Clinical Neuroscience).

Clinical background: Medical specialist in Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Addiction Medicine. Training in Public Health.

Dr. Schütz’s main research interests focus on the clinical interventions and health service in substance use disorders and dual diagnoses (mental plus substance use disorders), as well as neurobiological and neurocognitive aspects of impulsive decision-making.

His focus is on understanding the mechanism of relapse and impulsive decision-making to improve treatment of addiction and concurrent disorders; developing novel interventions focused on stimulant use disorders; and developing a more comprehensive integrated min/brain-based sound concept of motivation and decision-making. Publications include over 170 research articles.

He has spoken in over 250 presentations across Europe and North America, discussing the latest scientific findings about substance use disorders and concurrent disorders.

Dr. Schütz is also the Principal Investigator of the B.R.A.I.N. Lab.

Source: https://brainlab.med.ubc.ca/people/

Peer-reviewed publications

• 2020 Outstanding Academic Performance (OAP), Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
• 2019 Outstanding Academic Performance (OAP), Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
• 2018 Outstanding Academic Performance (OAP), Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
• 2017 NARSAD Independent Investigator Award, Brain and Behaviour Foundation
• 2015 – present Founding Member, World Association of Dual Diagnosis (WADD)
• 2013 – present Member, Canadian Psychiatric Association (Chair Addiction Psychiatry Section)
• 2012 – present Member, World Psychiatric Association, Section on Addiction Psychiatry
• 2012 – present Member, College International for Neuropsychiatry (CINP)
• 2012 – present Member, International Society for Research on Impulsivity (ISIR)
• 2021 – Present Member, BC Ministry of Mental Health & Addiction Core Advisory Group for MHA Research 
• 2020 – present Member, Psychedelic Medicine Assisted Therapy Advisory Committee organized by BC Ministry of Mental Health & Addiction
• 2019 – present Member, Provincial Concurrent Disorder Technical Panel
• 2019 – present Advisory Committee Member, Planning for the Appropriate Use of Prescription Heroin, Addictions and Mental Health Ontario
• 2013 – 2019 Chair, Addiction Psychiatry Section, Canadian Society of Psychiatry

Dr. Anthony Phillips received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Western Ontario, under the mentorship of Gordon Mogenson and subsequently spent time in the laboratories of Elliot Valenstein and James Olds at the Fels Research Institute and Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, respectively.

He joined the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia in 1970, was appointed full professor in 1980. He then served as head of the department from 1994-99. He subsequently joined the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, UBC in 2000 and became the Founding Director of the UBC Institute of Mental Health in 2005. Dr. Phillips served for two terms (2001-07) as the inaugural Chair of the Advisory Board for the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction.
Dr. Phillips also played an important role in the evolution of the biotechnology industry in Canada, having been a Founding Director of QLT and serving as Secretary/Treasurer to its Board from 1982-92, and currently as a Founder and Member of the Board of Allon Therapeutics Inc. He has been elected as President (2012-14) of the Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum (CINP).

Dr. Phillips’ research interests are broadly based within the field of pre-clinical neuropsychopharmacology and systems neuroscience. He has published over 300 peer- reviewed articles and book chapters. His pioneering research, with H.C. Fibiger, laid the foundation for the role of dopamine in the neural control of motivation and memory, with its clinical implications for understanding biological correlates of addiction. He has a long-standing interest in applying knowledge concerning normal brain-behavior function to understanding the neural bases of mental illness and addiction.

Peer-reviewed publications

Dr. Phillips’ distinguished awards include: Canada Council Killam Senior Research Scholar (1978-80) and E.W.R. Steacie Fellow, NSERC (1980-82). In 1986, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was also the recipient of an inaugural UBC Killam Research Prize. The Canadian Psychological Association honoured him in 1995 with the Donald O. Hebb Award for `Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Science.’ In 1996, the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology awarded him with the inaugural prize for `Innovations in Neuropsychopharmacoloty’ (with H.C. Fibiger) and in 2009, with the Heinz Lehmann Award. In 2010, Dr. Phillips was elected a Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.