Mental Health and Behaviour

The purpose of this study is to explore physicians' perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care, focusing on how views differ across career stages and specialties. It will examine the impact of generational differences and clinical experience on AI adoption. Additionally, the research will investigate how physicians anticipate their roles evolving as AI automates aspects of medical practice. By analyzing these dimensions, the study aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the medical community’s readiness for AI integration and its implications for clinical workflow.

The purpose of this study is to examine spontaneous (i.e., not cued or externally triggered) craving in cigarette smokers. The study team will present participants with craving probes while they watch a non-smoking related film. The goal is to examine the ability of this method to capture craving so it can be applied to brain imaging research.

The purpose of this study is to assess COVID-19 prophylactic/therapeutic safety and effectiveness in transplant patients, assess mental health impacts of COVID-19 on transplant patients and families, develop strategies to improve well-being, and determine the economic burden and value of emerging and existing prophylactic/therapeutic options for COVID-19 in transplant patients.

This study aims to explore the perspectives of patients with opioid dependence and health care providers (HCPs) who are involved in the care of individuals with opioid use disorder on how they would feel regarding a contingency management (CM) smartphone game for opioid agonist therapy (OAT). The study team will be obtaining information through focus groups with patients and semi-structured interviews with HCPs.

The purpose of this study is to compare two non-invasive neurostimulation techniques (ECT and MST) in the treatment of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to improving our understanding of functioning in psychosis. Memory is an important predictor of how well individuals affected by schizophrenia and related psychoses are able function in their social and occupational lives. However, the exact structures and functions in the brain responsible for this relationship are currently unknown.

The purpose of this study is to determine if a 26-week health coaching program can increase time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity and improve mobility compared with a 26-week group health education program in older adults with limited mobility.

The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of Canadians with suicide-related thoughts and/or behaviours during, or shortly before, the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes what it was like seeking care for these conditions, what kinds of support were most helpful, what was missing, and how we could do a better job of providing care and resources.  

The purpose of this study is to test whether a specific combination of biomarkers discovered during previous studies can help predict how someone experiencing a major depressive episode will respond to treatment. The study will also explore other possible biomarkers that may predict treatment response, which may help in the future development of tests that can guide treatment choice more effectively and more quickly.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the user-friendliness and trustworthiness of a website called My Guide Concussion – Teen Edition. B.C. and Yukon have limited medical resources for concussion management, so the My Guide Concussion – Teen Edition website was developed as an online concussion resource and self-management guide for adolescents recovering from concussion. The study will determine whether the website satisfies the needs of patients, caregivers and other stakeholders. Results of this study will inform revisions to the site to improve its usability and scalability.

The purpose of this study is to recruit volunteer patients and healthy individuals for the UBC Brain Biobank, a state-of-the-art facility located at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. Participants will provide 25ml of blood to be collected at the time of recruitment. These specimens will be processed and stored for ethics-approved brain research purposes in the future. The UBC Brain Biobank will also request access to participants' clinical records, which will be securely stored in a limited-access database and will be shared with researchers in a de-identified manner.

The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences and perceptions of yoga from people with spinal cord injury (SCI), yoga instructors and clinicians. This well help researchers better understand the perceived barriers and enablers of yoga and find implementation options using Mode of Delivery Taxonomy Version (MoDTv0).

The purpose of this study is to examine whether cannabidiol (also known as CBD) is effective in treating symptoms of depression in people diagnosed with bipolar disorder type I or II when added to their regular medications.

Recruitment Poster

The purpose of this study is to adapt and pilot test a mobile app-based motivational interviewing pre-treatment intervention for women on eating disorder clinic waitlists. Broadly, the project aims to improve individuals' motivation to recover from their eating disorder while they are waiting for services. The mobile app will include seven self-help sessions consisting of videos, articles and exercises.

The purpose of this study is to understand the link between schizophrenia and heat. People with schizophrenia have died at disproportionately high rates in recent heat events. While there is some physiological and biomedical understanding of thermoregulation in people with schizophrenia, understandings of their social vulnerability is lacking. Through interviews with people with schizophrenia, as well as their caregivers and loved ones, the study team aims to get a fuller understanding of their experiences in extreme heat events.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate a peer-led mental health support program, REACHOUT, for rural and remote communities in British Columbia. REACHOUT is a mobile app that provides free peer-led mental health support to adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D). The REACHOUT intervention spans over six months and empowers adults with T1D to join as either a peer supporter, who will be trained to provide social and emotional assistance, or as a participant, who will receive invaluable support from empathetic peer supporters.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of 25mg of psilocybin versus a placebo in subjects with alcohol use disorder through analysis of the number of heavy drinking days over the eight-week treatment period.

The purpose of this study is to measure patterns of hepatitis C virus (HCV) reinfection after achieving an undetectable viral load at end of treatment on direct-acting aniviral therapy; to determine the threshold of risk reduction practices that protects against HCV reinfection after achieving an undetectable viral load; and to evaluate the potential impact of successful HCV treatment in terms of health care costs and resource utilization.

The purpose of this study is to test a novel psychoeducational intervention for individuals at high risk for bipolar disorder (BD). BD affects over two per cent of the population and is commonly based on self-reported history of (hypo)manic episodes that are frequently underreported. This can result in a substantial delay in the accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment initiation of BD which is linked to poor clinical and functional outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of two separate non-medication treatments, light therapy and ion therapy, as substitutes for antidepressants for maintenance treatment in major depression. More information on the study can be found at reachbc.ca.