Dr. Raymond Chan, a deputy director of the Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, was invited by the CIHR-NSFC to attend and give a plenary speech at the Canada-China Joint Health Research Initiative Scientific Workshop on “Mood Disorders and Mental Health” on Sept 11th in Beijing.
CIHR (Canada Institute of Health Research) is one of the largest funding agents in Canada. It has co-organized with the NSFC to hold joint symposium annually in the past 8 years. Mood disorders and other neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia have been one of the core problems of mental health globally. The main theme of the joint scientific workshop was therefore focusing mood disorders and related neuropsychiatric disorders in order to examine the nature of emotional and social cognitive disturbances in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Drs. Qing Chang, a senior advisor, Bureau of International Cooperation and Co-director of the Sino-German Centre for the Promotion of Science, NSFC, and Dr. Anthony Phillips, Scientific Director, CIHR-INMHA CIHR, had given opening remarks of the workshop. Drs. Yiru Fang and Glenda MacQueen co-chaired the workshop.
Dr. Raymond Chan has given a plenary speech on the topic of “Anhedonia in at-risk individuals and patients with neuropsychiatric disorders: Evidence from both behavioural and imaging findings”. His talk mainly highlighted the importance of anhedonia, one the main negative symptoms for schizophrenia and main cardinal features for major depressive disorder, and illustrated the relationship of clinical manifestations and its underlying neural mechanisms . He finally highlighted the importance of a translational neuropsychology and neuroscience model of mental disorders and the need for early detection and intervention in mainland China.
Besides, Dr. Zhuohong Zhu from the Key Laboratory of Mental Health was invited to present his main findings on E-mental health in mainland China. The workshop included several thematic sessions on depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, adolescent mental health, and e-mental health. A total of 10 experts from Canada and mainland China were invited to present and share their expertise on such an issue.
A round table discussion was then chaired by both Drs. Yiru Fang and Glenda MacQueen. All the participants had given their viewpoints on how to address the basic scientific and clinical questions of mood disorders and other neuropsychiatric disorders. The scientific workshop was held successfully and has achieved the main aim to facilitate and strengthen the existing collaboration among the speakers, and started off potential work on neuropsychiatric disorders. It was a fruitful event to facilitate further collaboration among scholars and clinicians in China and Canada. After the workshop, a group of Canadian scholars have visited the Institute of Psychology and started off a brief communication with Drs. Raymond Chan, Yi Jiang, Wen Zhou, and Tao Zhang.
Dr. Raymond Chan is presenting his findings on anhedonia in schizophrenia and major depression
A visit to Jiangyi's Lab
A visit to Zhangtao's primate Lab
Odour testing in Zhouwen's Lab
