John Ogrodniczuk

Dr. Nicholls is Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UBC and Distinguished Scientist at the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission, BCMHSUS. She holds cross-appointments at UBC including the SPPH and an Adjunct appointment in the Department of Psychology, SFU.

Her research examines the intersections of law and mental health related to the provision of services to persons in conflict with the law and diverse marginalized populations focusing on assessment and treatment of violence, criminality and the development and implementation of EBP. She has published manuals to support the translation of research into practice and has engaged in large-scale implementations and evaluations; these include violence risk assessments and mental health screening in correctional settings, mental health assessments and treatment planning (see manuals).

Her scholarly work has earned her and her teams multiple grants and awards totalling over $15 million. Recently she received a CIHR Foundation award (> $2 million; 2015-2022) to fund her research.

Topics at the intersections of law and mental health. Including risk assessment and management (suicide, violence, self-harm); measure development and psychometrics; mentally ill individuals who come into conflict with the law; psychopathy; domestic violence; resiliency, recovery, victimization and homelessness; de-institutionalization and trans-institutionalization.

Nicholls Lab

Peer-reviewed publications

• 2017 Significant Contribution Award, Canadian Psychological Association, Criminal Justice Section
• 2016 Canadian Institutes of Health Research -Foundation Award
• 2016 New Zealand Chad Buckle Visiting Fellowship, Mental Health, Addictions, & Intellectual Disability Directorate, Wellington, NZ 
• 2012 Quality Award – Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability Program, BC Patient Safety & Quality Council
• 2011 Accreditation Canada Leading Practice – Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability  
• 2004 President’s New Researcher Award, Canadian Psychological Association
• 2004 Distinguished Professional Contribution, American Psychological Association/APAGS

@ToniaLNicholls

Dr. Erin Michalak is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, Program Director for the APEC Digital Hub for Mental Health and the Patient Engagement Methods Clusters Lead for the BC SUPPORT Unit. Her background is in psychology, with a PhD awarded from the University of Wales College of Medicine in the United Kingdom. Her research expertise lies in eHealth/mHealth, patient engagement in research, knowledge translation, mood disorders, quality of life, and implementation science.

Dr. Michalak’s research has been well supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and other funders. She is the founder and leader of the `Collaborative RESearch Team for the study of psychosocial issues in Bipolar Disorder’ (CREST.BD), a CIHR-funded Canadian network dedicated to collaborative research and knowledge exchange in bipolar disorder. She has published over 100 scientific articles and several books and book chapters. She lives on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, where she is an avid mushroom hunter and breeder of Giant Schnauzers.

www.crestbd.ca/
www.bdwellness.com
www.bdqol.com

View publications

2018 CIHR Gold Leaf Prize for Transformation in Patient Engagement

@erin_michalak
@CREST_BD

Dr. Raymond Lam is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the UBC Mood Disorders Centre. He is a lead investigator for the Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression, Executive Director of the APEC Digital Hub for Mental Health, and Past Executive Chair of the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments. He also leads the Cluster of Excellence on Research on Equity in Mental health in the Asia Pacific–Digital focus.

Dr. Lam’s research examines clinical and neurobiological factors in seasonal, treatment-resistant and workplace depression, clinical trials, clinical guidelines, digital health technologies, and global mental health.

Peer-reviewed publications

• Distinguished Achievement Award for Overall Excellence, UBC Faculty of Medicine, 2022 & 2014
• J.M. Cleghorn Award for Clinical Research, Canadian Psychiatric Association, 2015
• R.O. Jones Memorial Award Canadian Psychiatric Association, 2007
• Silver Anniversary Leadership Award, UBC Medical Alumni, 2006
• Douglas Utting Prize and Medal for Depression Research, McGill University, 2001

Dr. David Kealy is an Associate Professor with the Psychotherapy Program and the Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Kealy has a background in social work and public mental health service, previously holding a clinical leadership position at one of the largest community outpatient psychotherapy programs in British Columbia. He provides teaching and clinical supervision in the Psychotherapy Program, and maintains an active consultation and psychotherapy practice.

His program of research encompasses the process and outcome of psychotherapy, along with many of the issues that bring people to seek psychotherapy. Such issues include concerns in areas of identity and self-concept, emotion regulation, and interpersonal relatedness. His psychotherapy research is focused on factors that influence therapy process and outcome, particularly in the treatment of individuals with personality disorders, multiple clinical or social difficulties, and histories of traumatic experience. The ultimate aim of such work is to support integrative and personalized approaches to treatment, as well as preventive and accessible interventions.

Website: UBC Men’s Health Research Program

Peer-reviewed publications

His work has been recognized by early-career research awards from the Western Psychological Association and the Society for Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration, and he is currently a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar.

Dr. Honer trained in medicine at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and received his MD in 1984. Following a year of internal medicine training at the Vancouver General Hospital, he was a resident in psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University for three years. During the final year of his residency program, and for the next three years, Dr. Honer was a research fellow at Columbia University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he was a member of Dr. Peter Davies’ neuropathology research group.

Dr. Honer moved to Vancouver in 1991, and is now the Jack Bell Chair in Schizophrenia and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. He is Vice-President, Academic and Strategic Development, BC Mental Health and Addictions Services, and is a consultant psychiatrist. Dr. Honer is also an Honorary Professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Hong Kong, and a Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry in Columbia University in New York.

He received a Scientist Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and has received both the Young Investigator Award (1997) and the Heinz Lehmann Award (2008) from the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Dr. Honer is the author of 215 peer-reviewed publications and has authored the assessment section of the Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines for Schizophrenia.

Dr. Honer’s research interests include mechanism of illness and developing new treatments for schizophrenia, neural plasticity in Alzheimer’s disease, and understanding pathways to co-occurring illnesses including psychosis, addiction and viral infection.

• Translational research: applying neuroscience techniques to investigate brain disorders.
• Clinical research: clinical trials and studies of risk factors for disease.
• Synaptic Proteins and Connectivity in Neuropsychiatric Disorders
• A panel of monoclonal antibodies developed in the lab are used to investigate disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, aging, and Alzheimer’s disease.
• Distinct changes in amount, distribution and interactions of these proteins are found in each illness.
• In vitro systems are being developed to study regulation of the synaptic proteins, and to permit screening for drug effects.
• Schizophrenia and related psychotic illness
• The contribution of genetics, development and experience to the onset of schizophrenia is being studied in a large, catchment-area based population.
• Brain imaging is used to investigate developmental and progressive components of schizophrenia.
• The results of these projects may guide clinical studies of neurodevelopment in patients with schizophrenia, and help define the relevant aspects to study in animal models. Improving the methods of assessment, diagnosis and treatment of patients with chronic psychosis provides direct benefit to the patients and their families.
• Clinical trials aim to define treatment responsive and treatment refractory components of psychotic illnesses.
• Aging and dementia
• A large collaborative study is underway to investigate the role of “neural reserve” in brain aging, and the interaction with developing dementia. This study is led by Dr. David Bennett at Rush University in Chicago, and has recruited over 1000 subjects. Brain tissue from over 200 postmortem samples is being studied in my laboratory.
• Substance abuse
• A large collaborative study investigated factors predisposing to developing persistent psychosis following use of methamphetamine. New studies will use brain imaging to investigate the basis for cognitive impairment and persistent psychosis in methamphetamine users, in parallel with animal models.
• A new cohort study will investigate schizophrenia or affective psychosis, and substance induced psychosis in people at high risk for homelessness, living in single room occupancy hotels in Vancouver. The implications for psychosocial function and access to health services will be examined.

Source

Vila-Rodriguez, F., Honer, W. G., Innis, S. M., Wellington, C. L., & Beasley, C. L. (2011). ApoE and cholesterol in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: Comparison of grey and white matter and relation with APOE genotype. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience : JPN, 36(1), 47-55. PMID: 20964956

Torres, I. J., DeFreitas, V. G., DeFreitas, C. M., Kauer-Sant’Anna, M., Bond, D. J., Honer, W. G., Lam, R.W., & Yatham, L. N. (2010). Neurocognitive functioning in patients with bipolar I disorder recently recovered from a first manic episode. TheJournal of Clinical Psychiatry, 71(9), 1234-1242. PMID: 20361907

Smith, G.N., MacEwan, G.W., Kopala, Lang, D.J., Barr, A.M., Honer, W.G., Ehmann, T.S., Good, K., Thornton, A.E., & Neilson, H. (2010) Prenatal tobacco exposure in first-episode psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 119(1-3), 271 -272. PMID: 20116216

Procyshyn, R. M., Honer, W. G., Wu, T. K., Ko, R. W., McIsaac, S. A., Young, A. H., Johnson, J.L., & Barr, A. M. (2010). Persistent antipsychotic polypharmacy and excessive dosing in the community psychiatric treatment setting: A review of medication profiles in 435 canadian outpatients. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 71(5), 566-573. PMID: 20361903

Procyshyn, R. M., Barr, A. M., Flynn, S., Schenk, C., Ganesan, S., & Honer, W. G. (2010). Long-acting injectable risperidone in treatment refractory patients: A 14-week open-label pilot study. Schizophrenia Research, 123(2-3), 273-275. PMID: 20688481

Procyshyn, R. M., Barr, A. M., Brickell, T., & Honer, W. G. (2010). Medication errors in psychiatry: A comprehensive review. CNS Drugs, 24(7), 595-609. PMID: 20356315

Pajonk, F. G., Wobrock, T., Gruber, O., Scherk, H., Berner, D., Kaizl, I., Kierer, A., Müller, S., Oest, M., Meyer, T., Backens, M., Schneider-Axmann, T., Thornton, A.E., Honer, W.G., & Falkai, P. (2010). Hippocampal plasticity in response to exercise in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67(2), 133-143. PMID: 20124113

Hunter, M. J., Hippman, C., Honer, W. G., & Austin, J. C. (2010). Genetic counseling for schizophrenia: A review of referrals to a provincial medical genetics program from 1968 to 2007. American Journal of Medical Genetics.Part A, 152A(1), 147-152. PMID: 20034078

Chen, E. Y., Hui, C. L., Lam, M. M., Chiu, C. P., Law, C. W., Chung, D. W., Tso, S., Pang, E.P., Chan, K.T., Wong, Y.C., Mo, F.Y., Chan, K.P., Yao, T.J., Hung, S.F., & Honer, W. G. (2010). Maintenance treatment with quetiapine versus discontinuation after one year of treatment in patients with remitted first episode psychosis: Randomised controlled trial. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 341, c4024. PMID: 20724402

Boyda, H. N., Tse, L., Procyshyn, R. M., Honer, W. G., & Barr, A. M. (2010). Preclinical models of antipsychotic drug-induced metabolic side effects. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 31(10), 484-497. PMID: 20674990

Dr. Honer received a Scientist Award from CIHR, and has received both the Young Investigator Award (1997) and the Heinz Lehmann Award (2008) from the Canadian College of Neuropsycho-pharmacology.