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Schizophrenia

The Schizophrenia Program is a multi-site clinical and research program which strives to investigate the origins and clinical correlates of psychosis so that they can be translated into best clinical practices through education of clinicians. Our program is involved in all components of this discovery, education and translation.

Discovery:  The program's discovery arm is lead by Dr.. Bill Honer, the UBC Jack Bell Chair in Schizophrenia, and is comprised of basic science and clinical research studies, The research programs center out of the Centre for Complex Disorders (CCD) in Vancouver. The general theme of our research is to look at psychosis from a wide perspective including proteomics (Drs. Clare Beasley and Bill Honer, UBC), pharmacology (Drs. Ric Procychyn and Alasdair Barr, UBC), neuroimaging (Drs. Donna Lang, Todd Woodward and Elton Ngan, UBC), genetics (Drs. Jehannine Austin and Robert Holt, UBC), cognition (Dr. Al Thornton, SFU), social psychology (Dr. Tania Lecomte, U of Montreal) and clinical (Drs. Bill Honer, Geoff Smith and Bill MacEwan, UBC).

Education:  Our educational activity is lead by Drs Austin, Honer and MacEwan. Dr. Austin coordinates the psychosis training for the UBC Medical School, Dr. Honer's group at CCD direct Masters, Doctoral and postdoctoral students. Clinical training in early psychosis occurs at the Early Psychosis Program (EPI) in Fraser South (Dr. Bill MacEwan),  inpatient treatment at St Paul's Hospital (Dr. Irfan Khanbhai), and Refractory Psychosis at Riverview Hospital (Drs. Sean Flynn and Chris Schenk )

Translation:  The translational component of our program is broad. Our goal is to help clinicians deal with the complexity of psychotic illnesses especially when these illnesses commonly interface with medical illnesses (HIV, HCV), substance abuse and poverty, It includes of clinical training programs in early psychosis intervention in Fraser Health, acute care psychosis at St Paul's Hospital and  refractory psychosis at Riverview Hospital.  We also organize 2 annual  mulidisciplinary conferences in early psychosis and clinical neurosciences. We also have monthly and quarterly journal clubs in basic science and early psychosis topics. Our program is also activiely involved in health networks providing leadership to the BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Network (Dr Honer) and membership in the BC Psychosis network.

Schizophrenia, Cognition & Imaging Laboratory