About the Book
Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation, this volume celebrates the creativity and dedication of Canadian scientists who have helped unravel some of the mysteries of the mind over recent years. The authors used criterion-based techniques to select 16 leading scientists for semi-structured interviews, as well as well-known philanthropists, policy-makers, and psychiatric "survivors". The fascinating interviews and reports not only show what motivates such outstanding individuals, but also describe what Canada and other countries can do to encourage more and better neuroscience. Those interviewed or reported on include researchers like Martin Alda, Dan Offord, Bruno Cormier, Cheryl Grady, Raymond Lam, Herta Guttman, Zindel Segal, Harvey Chochinov, Remi Quirion, Philip Seeman, Rachel Morehouse, Katherine Hegadoren, Juan Carlos Negrete; as well as Doris Sommer-Rotenberg, Michael Alzamora, Don Tapscott, Ana Lopes, Ross Taylor, Beva Dudiak, Sandra Sharwood, Edward Bronfman, Michael H. Wilson, Earla Dunbar, Joseph Tanenbaum, and Renee Marier.
Table of Contents:
Frontispiece; Dedication, Foreword, Acknowledgments; Introduction; Section I: Research and Researchers; Chapter 1. Alzheimer's Disease: Pat and Edie McGeer and the Inflamed Brain; Chapter 2. Anxiety Disorders: Richard Swinson Quells Disquiet; Chapter 3. Autism: Jeanette Holden Searches for Elusive Genes; Chapter 4. Bipolar Disorder: Martin Alda and the Genes of Mood; Chapter 5. Child Psychiatry. The Legacy of Dr. Dan Offord; Chapter 6. Forensic Psychiatry: Bruno Cormier (1919-1991), Rebel and Humanist; Chapter 7. Memory: Cheryl Grady Images the Aging Brain; Chapter 8. Mood Disorders: Raymond Lam and SAD; Chapter 9. Personality Disorders. Herta Guttman - Working with the Family; Chapter 10. Psyche and Soma. Mindfulness and Zindel Segal; Chapter 11. Psych and Soma: Harvey Max Chochinov and the Needs of the Dying; Chapter 12. Research Policy: Remi Quirion, the Eagle-Eyed; Chapter 13. Schizophrenia: Philip Seeman - Driven to Discovery; Chapter 14. Sleep Disorders: Rachel Morehouse Investigates the Science of Sleep; Chapter 15. Stress Disorders: Kathy Hegadoren Helps Women Under Stress; Chapter 16. Substance Abuse: Juan Carlos Negrete - Under the Influence; Chapter 17. Research and Redemption: A Poem by Doris Sommer-Rottenberg; Section II: Benefactors and Beneficiaries; Chapter 18. Art to the Rescue: Michael Alzamora - Flat Surrealist; Chapter 19. Chair in Schizophrenia Research: Don Tapscott and Ana Lopes; Chapter 20. Coast Foundation Society and the Story of Ross Taylor; Chapter 21. Consumer Advocacy: Beva Dudiak of Hamilton, Ontario; Chapter 22. Depression: Sandra Sharwood's Story; Chapter 23. Establishing an Award: The Life of Edward Bronfman; Chapter 24. Making Neuroscience Matter: The Honourable Michael H. Wilson; Chapter 25 Peer Support for Social Phobia: Earla Dunbar; Chapter 26. Philanthropy: Joseph M. Tanenbaum Exemplifies What it Means; Chapter 27. Renee Claire Marier: Proceeds to Give Away; Chapter 28. Special Ways of Giving: Ted and Diana Tremain, Toronto; Sandra Schulze, Calgary; Chapter 29. Transcendence: Jack Barr and the "Triple Whammy"; Chapter 30. Doris Sommer-Rotenberg: Transmuting the Tragedy of Suicide; Chapter 31. Volunteering: How Research Participants Are Safeguarded; Chapter 32. Conclusion: Emerging Themes; Appendix I. List of interviewees; Appendix II. Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation Officers.
Review :
Canadian Researchers Celebrate Country's Neuroscience Legacy Lynne Lamberg To commemorate its 25th anniversary, the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation publishes a book profiling the leaders and supporters of Canadian neuroscience. In 1983 Canadian psychiatrist Dan Offord, M.D., started the Ontario Child Health Study, a prospective cohort study of children's mental health that continues today. Offord and his team interviewed 1,869 Ontario families, with 3,294 children aged 4 to 16 years at enrollment, randomly selected from Canada's 1981 census. The landmark study showed that 1 in 5 Ontario children had symptoms of mental health problems. It confirmed links between these symptoms and poverty, family difficulties, poor school performance, and medical illness. It also prompted the establishment of the Canadian Centre for Studies of Children at Risk, now called the Offord Centre, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and sparked a host of early intervention programs in both Canada and the United States. Offord, who died in 2004 at age 70, is among the leaders of Canadian psychiatry profiled in Psyche in the Lab: Celebrating Brain Science in Canada. Published to mark the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation (CPRF), the book was launched at APA's annual meeting in Toronto last month. According to its Web site, CPRF is "a national charitable organization founded in 1980 to raise and distribute funds for psychiatric research and awareness in Canada." "We strived to represent varied fields of psychiatric research and geographic regions of Canada" in the book, said Mary Seeman, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a member of the CPRF board. Seeman cowrote the book with her son, Neil Seeman, a Toronto health care consultant, lawyer, and journalist. Many researchers featured in the book received CPRF grants early in their careers, she said. The book also showcases philanthropists, consumer advocates, volunteers, lay healers, and people with mental illness whose donations of funds and personal service support and advance psychiatric research. Using Seeman's questions, David Gentili, a recent graduate of Queen's University, visited and interviewed nearly all of the book's subjects, providing transcripts that Mary and Neil Seeman edited. The authors also drew on subjects' published papers and comments from colleagues and others, completing the 250-page book's 32 chapters in only one year. Harvey Chochinov, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, another interviewee, designed a brief psychotherapeutic intervention, known as dignity therapy, for people nearing death. It consists of a 30- to 60-minute tape-recorded session in which therapists invite ill people to review aspects of their lives they most want others to remember. Patients receive edited transcripts to share with their families. The majority of 100 terminally ill cancer patients participating in a clinical trial of dignity therapy reported that this intervention eased their suffering and depression, and increased their sense of purpose and meaning. Few drug-based therapies offer those benefits, Chochinov observed. With funding from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), he and others are embarking on an international randomized, controlled trial to compare dignity therapy with supportive psychotherapy and standard palliative care (see ). CPRF hopes Psyche in the Lab will prompt young people to pursue careers in psychiatric research, raise funds for grants to young researchers, and help normalize psychiatric illness, Seeman said. Sandra Sharwood, age 70 when interviewed for the book, described her lifelong struggle with mental illness. She was diagnosed at age 14 with depression, a disorder that also affects her sister and one of her sons. She received electroconvulsive therapy, and despite inte Everywhere you look in medicine these days, there are stories. Proponents of narrative medicine debate supporters of more traditional medical humanities. Medical students attend storytelling workshops and present "narratives" to an attentive audience. Storytelling is presumed to have benefits for those who tell the tale and those who listen (the potential risks seem to be less often considered). In addition to providing a means of conveying information, the process of storytelling has been imbued with a number of virtues, including the opportunity for better patient care and enhanced self-awareness. In the discussion of the therapeutic benefits of storytelling, one key fact is often overlooked: some stories are just more interesting than others. This is apparent when reading Psyche in the Lab: Celebrating Brain Science in Canada, by Mary Seeman and Neil Seeman. Published to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation (CPRF), this book contains 29 profiles of Canadians in the mental health field. Sixteen individuals profiled are researchers, while the remainder are consumers, philanthropists or other nonprofessionals. By telling the story of an institution through the narratives of people involved in its work, the authors add humanity to what could otherwise be a rather dry history. The second half of the book is especially engaging. Voices of consumers and family members are well represented. Likewise, the stories of philanthropists and patrons provide interesting opportunities to learn about donors ranging from Joseph Tanenbaum, a generous supporter of Canadian charities, to Renee Claire Marier, a woman with schizophrenia who gives 50% of the profits from paintings she sells to schizophrenia research. But as I read through the first section of Psyche in the Lab, featuring profiles of psychiatric researchers, I found that while some stories were especially interesting, others were rather unremarkable. The authors used "criterionbased techniques" to select "16 leading scientists" for semistructured interviews. The intention was to choose a diverse group of accomplished scientists associated with the CPRF or the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The interviews were conducted by an assistant, David Gentili, who also transcribed them. In some cases, the person's research was interesting to me, while in others, it was the life story of the researcher. But I was struck by the fact that people who do fascinating research may lead lives that are, at least on the face of it, quite unexceptional. In contrast, the chapter on Bruno Cormier, a nowdeceased Quebec psychiatrist who signed the "Refus global" in 1948, made for engrossing reading not only because of his pioneering work in forensic psychiatry, but also because of his political activism. Because the Canadian psychiatric community is relatively small, there were people profiled who I knew on a personal or professional level. While that stimulated my interest to read those chapters, the same obviously could not be said for the general reader. Perhaps if the authors themselves had been able to interview the persons being profiled, the first part of the book might have been more engaging. Particular avenues of inquiry that stimulated the interest of the authors could have been explored, and then developed more fully. Several times I found myself wanting to know more about how the researcher felt at a critical juncture of his or her career. If the authors could have fleshed out the biographies with more detail, even tales that appeared to be quite ordinary might have revealed thought-provoking insights. The greatest risk in telling the story of a research foundation is that it will be deathly dull. While the interest level may vary by chapter, Psyche in the Lab is, overall, a book that successfully integrates the experiences of several groups as it describes the history of an organization that has made an important contribution to mental health in Canada. Lara Hazelton, Psychiatrist, Halifax, NS, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol. 176 (2), January 2007
