May 2023
This month's brainbuzz™ features celebrations of all that has been accomplished in CAMH’s short 25-year history; a patient story as part of CAMH's No one left behind campaign; and updates on research that aims to reverse memory loss in people living with dementia. Please reach out if you have any questions or feedback.
Aristotle Voineskos
VP Research, CAMH
CAMH Turns 25!
It was 25 years ago last month that CAMH was created through a merger between what was then called the Queen Street Mental Health Centre, the Addiction Research Foundation, the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry and the Donwood Institute.
CAMH instantly became Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital and, 25 years later, continues to lead the way in delivering mental health and addictions research and care.
“I truly believe that mental health is the most important health issue of our lifetime. We have achieved so much over the past 25 years, but I know that our best days are still ahead,” remarked CAMH President and CEO, Sarah Downey.
“As we look ahead to the next 25 years, I’m confident that we will continue to inspire hope through more breakthrough research discoveries, delivering exceptional patient care and ensuring that mental health and addictions remain on the national agenda.”
The early years of the newly created CAMH were spent laying the groundwork to execute an ambitious vision that would see the construction and consolidation of world-class clinical and research facilities. The enormity of this vision was matched only by the organization’s determination to see this plan through to completion.
In 2006, seven years after the initial study recommending CAMH consolidate its main functions on one site, construction on Phase 1A began—officially kicking off our comprehensive redevelopment plan. By 2022, CAMH had completed three phases of construction and announced the fourth and final phase (Phase 1D) replacing existing facilities for patients with complex mental illness who have encountered the legal system and consolidating research in one state-of-the-art facility.
In keeping with the ambition that has underscored this redevelopment, in 2023 CAMH launched No One Left Behind, the world’s largest fundraising campaign to support hospital-based mental health research.
Augustina's Story of Hope
Augustina Ampofo was a happy and energetic child. Born to first-generation Ghanaian parents, she recalls growing up in a home full of music, dancing and laughter. But at some point during her teenage years, she started experiencing what she now knows was depression.
“I remember my mom taking me to the doctor and the doctor saying, 'That could be depression.' And my mom replying, 'Depression? No, what does she have to be depressed about?' In my family and my community, we didn’t talk about depression or mental illness. That was the first time I had heard that word and I didn't even really know what it meant.”
Augustina kept going, graduating from university and moving to Alberta for work in her early twenties, without giving mental health a second thought. After a transition period filled with financial uncertainty and stress, Augustina heard a voice for the first time.
"I believed I was going through a spiritual experience. There was a point where I thought I was an angel and that I was here on a mission sent by God. It was very easy for me to believe it because no one else was hearing the voices or seeing hallucinations like I was."
Her psychosis only began to frighten her when the once positive and hopeful voices changed to something more sinister.
“They started saying negative things like, ‘You're so stupid, or you're not good enough,’ and when they started telling me to stop eating because food was being poisoned, that's when it got really scary.”
Almost a decade later, she emotionally recalls seeing her father at the hospital, after her coworkers made the tough decision to bring her to the emergency department. He tried to put on a brave face for her, smiling and reassuring her that she was going to be okay, but she could see how afraid he really was. The idea of psychosis—a condition in which people have trouble distinguishing what is real and what is not—was unheard of in her family and their culture, making it difficult for any of them to fully understand what was happening.
Rightful distrust in the health care system played a role in her experience as well, as she remembers how she was treated when her coworkers brought her to the hospital. She was a young, petite, Black woman who needed help, but was met with animosity from nurses, patronizing conversations with psychiatrists, and unnecessary aggression from a security guard.
“I don't think I would have been treated with as much aggression if I wasn’t Black. I mean, I'll give it to you—I was scared and trying to run away, but I don't think that I needed to be restrained in the way that I was. It just seemed like they were so scared of me, like maybe they thought I wasn’t human or something.”
Following that terrifying experience, Augustina returned to Ontario and was able to get into a treatment program a few months later. She credits her recovery in part to that program, as she received care quickly, before her psychosis worsened, and was able to find a community with others going through a similar experience.
Augustina is committed to building that community and sharing her story so others feel less alone and more empowered to get the help they need. One of the many positive things that has come out of her treatment and recovery is finding CAMH—a place to amplify her message and impact. Today, she is a Youth Engagement Specialist at CAMH, working on a number of research projects focused on finding early intervention strategies for young people with psychosis. She is also paving the way for other Black women in research to do the same.
“It means so much to me to know CAMH is giving people like me a seat at the table when it comes to research. I get to be in the room with scientists and researchers and tell them about my experiences. As a young person. As someone with lived experience of mental illness. As a Black woman,” says Augustina. “That’s how we do better research—by giving people a voice about things that affect them. Listening to them. Seeking to understand them. Learning from them. That’s how we get better care.”
She has come such a long way over the past decade and the future is bright for Augustina. As she helps advance CAMH research—and inspires people to support it—she is also creating a brighter future for others who may be facing similar mental health challenges.
“When CAMH does research that helps diagnose and treat mental illness in kids sooner, it means there are healthier young people. Healthy young people turn into healthy adults. Healthy adults mean a healthier world and a more productive society where no one is left behind,” says Augustina. “That shows the kind of impact CAMH research has—it’s global.”
Augustina's story is part of the featured content within the No one left behind campaign which is a rallying cry to stand together, to bring one another strength and to search for answers that don’t yet exist. And if we can’t find what we need, we build it. Visit the campaign website to learn more.
Reversing Memory Loss
Dr. Etienne Sibille is building a future where treatments will reverse memory loss in people living with dementia.
While we have learned more about the brain in the last 20 years than in the entire history of modern medicine that preceded it, there is currently no effective treatment for dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. But if you listen to CAMH Senior Scientist Dr. Etienne Sibille, that is all about to change. He is convinced that after more than a decade of preclinical work, he has made a discovery that will revolutionize how we diagnose and treat the aging brain, raising the tantalizing possibility that in the not too distant future, we will be able to prevent and even reverse the
devastating effects of dementia.
“The exciting part is that we are moving full speed towards the clinical development of a new drug that, if successful, will help millions of people who suffer from the consequences of Alzheimer’s and depression,” says Dr. Sibille. “If it works it will be truly transformational. We will be able to keep brain cells young and healthy and reverse problems with memory. We have been amazed at the results so far.”
Not so long ago, it was believed that we got the brain we were born with and as it gets older, the only changes that take place in the brain are for the worst. But with modern advances in brain imaging, we can now look inside the brain with unprecedented clarity. We know through the relatively recent discoveries of cognitive reserve and neuroplasticity that the aging brain is far more flexible and adaptable than we ever thought before.
Assisted by ready access to CAMH’s world-class resources in molecular brain research like the Brain Health Imaging Centre run by his colleague Dr. Neil Vasdev, Dr. Sibille believes the potential implications of his work are profound.
“There are no drugs on the market that improve cognitive deficit (e.g., memory and thinking problems), whether it is in depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, etc.,” says Dr. Sibille. “This would be a first. And it is not just the symptoms that are being treated. We have shown that we can improve the health of brain cells and reverse the effect of normal aging in the brain. The implications may be broader than we think.”
Since these results are based on over a decade of preclinical work, Dr. Sibille believes a new drug based on this research could become widely available to the public as soon as five years from now, with the first human clinical trial expected to begin as soon as 2024.
Dr. Sibille’s potential breakthrough came from what he describes as a completely different mechanism for treating the aging brain by working with biomarkers that target what is called the GABA neurotransmitter system in the brain.
“I did not come from the world of Alzheimer’s research. My work has been in the area of stress and normal aging and so we looked at the problem of dementia from a different angle. Parts of our finding has actually been known for over 40 years in Alzheimer’s research, we just haven’t looked at it in the right way. Sometimes you have to see what other people don’t see and connect the dots, even when you are looking at the same data.”
He has no doubt that CAMH is the perfect place for him to advance his work and believes a new state-of-the-art research building will allow for even more profound discoveries in the coming years.
“The research that is performed at CAMH on multiple levels of investigation, from molecular to clinical models, is a huge asset for researchers,” says Dr. Sibille. “We are in the midst of what I would say is a revolution in brain science where the amount of knowledge has dramatically increased. It’s a fantastic time to be in brain research.”
Buzz-worthy News
- According to two CAMH-supported research studies, the Ontario health care system is often failing pregnant people with disabilities who report having their care needs unmet and experiencing frequent ableism and stigma.
https://utsc.utoronto.ca/news-events/breaking-research/studies-find-health-care-system-often-fails-people-disabilities-who-give-birth - Early Career Health Economist Dr. Joyce Mason’s recent paper published in The Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics examines differences between self-reported mental health & administrative health records. Findings suggest stigma may be a key factor in reporting and suggest combined use of both sources of data may produce better prevalence estimates.
https://twitter.com/SamanthaWells02/status/1641616883173539844 -
Watch Dr. Liisa Galea on CTV's The Social speaking about the critical need for more research on women’s mental health and CAMH's No one left behind campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUsWpbbKjZo
