Dementia is an increasingly common condition that can have a significant impact on a patient’s quality of life. Behavioural symptoms of dementia include aggression and agitation, anxiety, depression, hallucinations, and delusions. Out of these symptoms agitation and aggression are particularly distressing to patients and their caregivers. The usual treatment for these symptoms includes behavioral interventions and medications. We have developed a standardized approach to the treatment of these symptoms known as an integrated care pathway (ICP). An ICP is a structured way to help patients toward a better outcome. It has rules for diagnosis and intervention that happen over a specific timeline. It is different from usual care because the steps to diagnose and treat are pre-determined, is based on evidence and is applied the same way across all patients.

The Framework for Research in Emerging Adults (FREA) is an innovative research platform designed to bridge the existing gaps in our understanding of mental health issues affecting individuals aged 16 to 24. This age group is important because of the significant changes they experience during this phase of life, which can have a profound impact on their mental well-being. This study aims to expand the scope of research in this critical area, thereby enhancing the mental health services and therapeutic interventions available to young adults. Furthermore, the study offers an opportunity for participants to actively monitor and track their mental health journey over time, providing valuable insights into their personal growth and development. By joining the FREA Registry for this study, participants are required to periodically complete short questionnaires focused on their mental health experiences and overall well-being. These surveys are designed to be both brief and informative, and continued participation is completely voluntary.

This study will explore the safety and efficacy of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) in individuals with OCD. Participants will be given FMT capsules and asked to provide stool, urine, saliva, and blood samples, and will be followed on a weekly basis for a period of 4 months.

Anxiety is the most common childhood disorder, and it can have significant long-term outcomes when not successfully treated. One treatment limitation is poor understanding of what causes anxiety. This study uses a MRI scanner to measure a neurotransmitter system known as the noradrenergic system. The noradrenergic system works in the brain to help with attention, learning, sleep and anxiety. This study will compare this system children with a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder to those without a diagnosis of any anxiety disorder (healthy controls). We will measure this system using MRI three times, spaced out across a year, to understand how this system is changing with time. As well as MRI, we will get measures of stress, cognition and behavior. We will look at how these relate to the noradrenergic system.

Mental health conditions, such as depressive and bipolar disorders, are very complex. They are also very disabling illnesses. Often, additional health issues complicate the symptoms and experiences that patients feel. To date, research has aimed to identify biological markers that help us understand these illnesses better. But, such clinical research trials often include only patients with a very clear-cut diagnosis. That means that people with additional health or psychiatric concerns are excluded. However, this is not true for real-world patients with mood disorders who often have additional health concerns. One solution is to create large-scale platform trials. They combine efforts of many institutions (universities). This creates a shared database that helps recruit a range of patients into clinical trials. For ENABLE, we aim to recruit participants across the entire range of mood disorders. This includes depression with comorbid psychiatric and general medical conditions. Examples include anxiety, substance use, psychosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, and cardiovascular or inflammatory conditions. The main objectives of ENABLE are threefold. First, to create a standardized method for collecting data. This data will characterize individuals with mood disorders. Second, get consent and standardize screening methods and get neurobiological data, including neuroimaging and EEG data. This will help recruit participants for future studies. Third, provide open access to standardized clinical and neurobiological data for the neuroscience community.

This study enrolls community dwelling adults over the age of 40 for assessments of cognition, behaviour, function, quality of life, and caregiver stress, in association with biomarkers, at 18 month intervals. Participants attend with a study partner, and at each visit are given a series of questionnaires and tests. The overall visit is ~2.5 hours in duration. Biomarkers of inflammation and neurodegeneration are obtained via a participant blood draw and urine collection at each visit. Additionally, participants will be given a stool collection kit to take home which will be returned to the lab for gut microbiome analysis.

In the study we want to find out, whether Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) can improve depression in patients with Major Depressive Disorder. FMT means that a solution prepared from stool of a healthy person is transferred into the gut of a person with a disease. This is already used for people suffering from severe stomach disorders such as C. difficile colotis. We now want to see if this procedure can also reduce the symptoms of depression. If you decide to participate in the study, you will receive FMT either from a healthy screened donor or placebo pill. The FMT will be delivered by oral capsules. You will have a 50:50 chance of receiving placebo capsules or FMT capsules. For this research study, we are recruiting participants who are on treatment for Major Depressive Disorder but are still experiencing depressive episodes. This study will take about 13 weeks to complete and will include 18 visits to Foothills Medical Center.

In this project, we aim to design an electronic tool, called strokePRO, which will allow for easier collection of stroke outcome assessments for patients participating in stroke clinical trials. The first step of our research involves meaningfully engaging with stroke patients and/or caregivers to understand patients' experiences and priorities regarding outcome assessment after a stroke. Thus, we are recruiting up to 60 ischemic stroke patients and/or stroke patient caregivers, to participate in this research study. Participation in this study would involve two parts: 1) First, you would be asked to attend an online one-on-one meeting with a member of our research team, where you would be presented with findings of previous stroke research priorities and outcomes of an electronic clinical outcome assessment tool. We would also ask you if there are any additional priorities or outcomes you feel are missing, and then have you rank them. This interview would be conducted through a digital format (i.e. Zoom video conferencing). 2) Second, you would be asked to attend an online focus group with up to 5 stroke patients and caregivers. In these focus groups, we will ask our participants about their thoughts on how they are being assessed after a stroke, their experiences with participating in previous stroke trials, and their preferences for being assessed for stroke outcomes. These focus groups will be conducted using semi-structured interview guides through a digital format (i.e. Zoom video conferencing). All participants will be compensated for their time and contributions.

Researchers from the University of Calgary are conducting a research study on social status. We want to see how you rank your own social status so that we can better understand what adults consider when they rank their social status and how their social status can affect their health. If you are interested, we will ask you to take part in an interview where we will ask you to rank your social status using a ladder scale and ask you a few questions about how you decided on that rank.

This study will explore the factors that influence food choices in the year after childbirth. We will also study the attitudes people have towards their changing body after childbirth. Our results will help health professionals such as dietitians to provide better care for postpartum individuals. This study involves an online survey with questions about how food choices are made and how postpartum individuals feel about their body. There will be an optional question to state if you would like to be contacted for a follow-up interview in the future.