| Your Health Research Dollars at Work 2006-2007 |
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The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada's agency for health research. Through CIHR, the Government of Canada invested approximately $53.7 million in 2006-07 across Canada in research on mental health and addiction.
Mental illness is a broad classification for several disorders, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, personality disorders and eating disorders.
One out of every five Canadians will have a mental health problem at some point in his or her life.
The onset of most mental illness occurs during childhood, adolescence and young adulthood.
One in 100 Canadians suffers from schizophrenia and another one in 100 suffers from bipolar disorder, or manic depression; 8% of adults will experience major depression at some point in their lives, while 12% of the population is affected by anxiety disorders.
Schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder are together responsible for more than 20% of years lived with a disability in established market economies.
About 3% of women will be affected by an eating disorder during their lifetime.
As a group, people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than to be violent themselves.
According to a Statistics Canada survey, more than 600,000 Canadians were dependent on alcohol and nearly 200,000 were dependent on illicit drugs in 2002.
Lost productivity from poor mental health is estimated to cost Canadian businesses $33 billion per year.
Despite the great advances that researchers have made in the treatment of mood disorders, depression is still a life-long battle for many people. Dr. Zindel Segal, a CIHR-funded researcher based at the University of Toronto, recently published a study suggesting that short-term emotional stress can trigger depression relapse in patients who have undergone previous treatment. By gaining a better understanding of the factors that predispose a patient to recurring depression, doctors may be able to more effectively treat this very common mood disorder.
Artificial light treatment is just as effective as antidepressants in treating Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and has fewer side effects, according to a study by CIHR-funded researcher Dr. Raymond Lam. Dr. Lam compared artificial light exposure with treatment with fluoxetine. His findings could help doctors select the most appropriate treatment for individual SAD patients.
Physical injuries, diabetes, cancer and infections can all result in neuropathic pain, a condition in which a person suffers from constant pain due to nerve damage. CIHR-funded researcher Dr. Yves de Koninck of the Centre de recherche Université Laval Robert-Giffard recently published a study suggesting that a chemical produced by damaged nerve cells may trigger this excruciating condition. Dr. de Koninck's discovery could lead to improved methods for managing pain in patients with nerve damage.
Drug addiction will never go away.
It's a harsh reality but, according to Dr. Benedikt Fischer, society must confront it to help addicts. Dr. Fischer, a CIHR-supported researcher at the University of Victoria, feels that it's time for us to set aside our preconceived notions about drug use and start looking for realistic ways to protect people from the harmful effects of addiction.
One of the biggest challenges right now is the need to create accessible treatment programs for drug addicts.
"Most drug users aren't people who will go to a hospital and present themselves to a doctor. That's not how things work with an addicted, homeless, marginalized drug user," says Dr. Fischer. "We have to think very differently about how we offer treatment, and what we can do to retain people in treatment to make them adhere to their medications."
The cost of failing to do so is high. Drug addiction leads to other health problems, such as the spread of infectious diseases like AIDS and hepatitis C. Research by Dr. Fischer into hepatitis C reduction strategies in place for drug addicts suggest the current approaches are not working.
"Somewhere between 85 and 90% of new hepatitis C infections are drug-use related," says Dr. Fischer. "So to deal with this disease in the present and future, we have to understand the drug use aspect, because otherwise we're just looking at the tip of the iceberg."
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada's agency for health research. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to catalyze its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health-care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 11,000 health researchers and trainees across Canada.
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
160 Elgin St., 9th Floor, Ottawa ON K1A 0W9
http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/
