Three Psychology researchers awarded CIHR Project Grants

Over half a million Canadians live with bipolar disorder (BD), a long-term and potentially disabling mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings from depression to mania. Suicide rates are disturbingly high - up to 15% of people with BD will end their own lives. This evidence paints a bleak picture. Yet, with optimal support, care and empowerment, people with BD can experience good health and quality of life (QoL). Our team - the Collaborative RESearch Team to study psychosocial issues in BD (CREST.BD) specializes in research into psychological and social treatments for BD. All of our research is done hand-in-hand with people who live with BD, their family members, healthcare providers and community partners. We recently completed a 3-year study to codesign and test a new mobile phone app, PolarUs, designed to support self-management and QoL measurement in people with BD. A pilot study was conducted in 170 people across North America. Results suggested that use of PolarUs was linked to improved QoL and mood (depression and mania) scores over time. In this project, we will build on our prior work and fully assess whether PolarUs improves QoL and mood outcomes in people with BD. In the first research stage, we will produce an advanced version of the app that is accessible to more diverse Canadians with BD. For example, we will translate and adapt the app content into multiple languages. In the second stage, we will test the new version of the app in a controlled study in North Americans who are diagnosed with BD. Improving peoples' knowledge about self-management strategies is a core element of effective treatment for BD. However, the majority of Canadians with the condition do not have access to basic psychoeducational information about self-management strategies and QoL measurement. The PolarUs app intervention, if successful, could provide one step towards addressing this gap and improving health and QoL outcomes in diverse Canadians with BD.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by the death of dopamine neurons in the brain, leading to motor and cognitive impairments. The disease effects ~1% of people older than 65 years old, and the economic burden of the disease in Canada is estimated to be more than $1.215 billion. Currently, there is no treatment to halt or reverse the progression of the disease, there are only medication that can delay the onset of symptoms to improve quality of life. Advances in genetic studies in recent decades have helped researchers identify many mutations in the human genome to be implicated in PD. However, a number of these hits have not been assigned a best candidate gene, and for those were assigned a candidate gene many are understudied in the context of PD. Therefore, for many genes implicated in PD by recent studies it is not clear what they do, how they interact and how they contribute to PD. We propose using a microscopic roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans, to study the function of PD-associated genes and propose best candidate genes for risk loci that are yet unassigned. C. elegans is cheap and easy to maintain and our automated behavioural scoring system allows us to study morphological and behavioural effects of mutation rapidly and systematically in each of the genes and risk loci associated with PD. Understanding how these genes function in the nervous systems of living animals may shed light on what causes PD. Data from these studies will generate a model that can classify an uncertain gene as disease-relevant or not and also group genes into those contributing to specific phenotypes. Results from these studies may allow a greater understanding of the heterogeneous nature of PD and identify novel therapeutic targets for treating PD.

A concussion is a kind of traumatic brain injury. Concussions are very common and can cause a variety of symptoms. Memory symptoms (e.g., forgetfulness) are among the most likely to last longer than 3-6 months. There are no known effective treatments. We are learning that how people cope with memory symptoms after concussion may strongly influence how they recover. We designed a new psychological treatment by tailoring 'cognitive-behavioural therapy' (CBT) to memory symptoms. It involves teaching people how to go about rebuilding their memory skills and confidence. The proposed study will compare this therapy to memory compensation strategy training, a type of rehabilitation traditionally used to help people with brain injury sidestep memory problems. Study participants will be assigned at random to CBT with usual care, cognitive rehabilitation with usual care, or usual care only. Following treatment, we will compare the three groups on a measure of memory concern. We will discover whether adding CBT or cognitive rehabilitation to usual care is better than usual care alone, and also whether CBT is more effective than cognitive rehabilitation. The study should provide new treatment options for people struggling with ongoing memory symptoms after concussion.