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Researcher Profile - Suzanne King |
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| First Name: | Suzanne | | Last Name: | King | | Title: | Dr. | | Advanced Degrees: | Ph.D. | | Affiliation: | McGill University | | Department: | Psychiatry | | Street Address 1: | Douglas Hospital Research Centre | | Street Address 2: | 6875 LaSalle Blvd. | | City: | Verdun | | State/Province: | Quebec | | Zip/Postal Code: | H4H 1R3 | Country/Territory: | Canada | | Phone: | 5147616131 | | Fax: | 5147623049 | | Email Address: |  |
Disclosure:
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Member reports no financial or other potential conflicts of interest. [Last Modified: 13 December 2007]
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View all comments by Suzanne King
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Drug abuse, Psychology, Autism spectrum disorders (pervasive developmental disorders), Bipolar disorder , Schizophrenia
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Neurodevelopment, Phenomenology/diagnosis, Epidemiology, Genetics
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University, Research institute
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My research in mental health began in 1989 with a series of studies on Expressed Emotion, an attitude in families that was presumed to be stressful to patients with schizophrenia. After several cross-sectional and quasi-experimental studies we concluded that the High EE family attitudes that predict relapse are, in fact, the effect on the family of living with a relapse-prone patient. This work led me an interest in the causes of schizophrenia, with the idea that different patterns of genetic and environmental causes could produce the different types of symptom profiles to which families react. This began the EnviroGen research program, in which we have been assesing as many known genetic and environmental risk factors for schizophrenia as possible. In the first phase of the program we have been evaluating these risk factors in people with a psychotic disorder, mostly schizophrenia, and linking the risk factors to various dimensions of the illness itself. It is becoming increasingly apparent that psychotic symptoms are not limited to individuals with a psychotic disorder, but that they are experienced to a milder extent in a substantial proportion of the general population. In the second phase of the EnviroGen research program, we assessed psychotic-like symptoms and a handful of risk factors in more than 2,000 Montrealers. Next, we conducted in-depth assessments of nearly 70 individuals. The EnviroGen projects are giving us important new informationabout how genes and environmental factors interact to influence clinical outcomes. One of the non-genetic risk factors we study in adults is prenatal maternal stress by interviewing the mothers of our adult subjects about their pregnancies 20 to 40 years earlier. Retrospective reports are not ideal in research. Thus, when the ice storms of January 1998 plunged more than 3 million Quebecers into darkness for as long as 45 days, we seized the opportunity to study prenatal stress prospectively. We have been following a group of 150 families, in which the mother was pregnant during the ice storm, in order to observe the immediate effects of different levels and types of stress on the unborn children. We continue to follow these children. |
Brenner, K. , Schmitz, N., Pawliuk, N. , Fathalli, F. 1, Joober, R., Ciampi, A., King, S.. (2007) Validation of the CAPE with a Montreal Community Sample. Schizophrenia Research, 95 (1-3), 86-95.
Laplante, D.P, Zelazo, P.R., Brunet, A., Barr, R.G., Galbaud du Fort, G., Meaney, M.J., Saucier, J.-F., Ciampi, A. & King, S. (2007) Functional Play at 2 Years of Age: Effects of Prenatal Maternal Stress. Infancy, 12(1), 69-93.
Braehler, C., Holowka, D., Brunet, A., Beaulieu, S., Baptista, T., Debruille, J.-B., Walker, C-D., & King, S. (2005) Diurnal Cortisol in Schizophrenia Patients with Childhood Trauma. Schizophrenia Research, 79 (2-3), 353-354.
King, S., Joober, R., & Laplante, D.P. (2005). Understanding Putative Risk Factors for Schizophrenia: Retrospective and Prospective Studies. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 30(5), 342-348.
King, S., Laplante, D.P.. (2005) The Effects of Prenatal Maternal Stress on Children’s Cognitive Development: Project Ice Storm. Stress, 8 (1), 35-45.
St-Hilaire, A., Holowka, D., Cunningham, H., Champagne, F., Pukall, M., King, S. (2005). Explaining Variation in the Premorbid Adjustment of Schizophrenia Patients: The Role of Season of Birth and Family History. Schizophrenia Research, 73(1), 39-48.
Laplante, D.P., Barr, R.G., Brunet, A., Galbaud du Fort, G., Meaney, M., Saucier, J.-F., Zelazo, P.R., & King, S., (2004) Stress during pregnancy affects general intellectual and language functioning in human toddlers. Pediatric Research, 56(3) 400-410.
King, S., Rochon, V., Ricard, N., Steiger, H., & Nelis, S. (2003) Determinants of Expressed Emotion in Mothers of Schizophrenia Patients. Psychiatry Research, 117 (3) 211-222.
Holowka, D.W., King, S., Saheb, D., Pukall, M., & Brunet, A. (2003) Childhood Abuse and Dissociative Symptoms in Adult Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 60, 87-90.
Dixon, M., King, S., Cunningham, H., Champagne, F., Stip, E., & Cormier, H. (2000) Continuous Performance Test Differences Among Schizophrenia Patients Living in High and Low Expressed Emotion Environments. Psychological Medicine, 30, 1141 - 1153.
King, S., (2000) Is Expressed Emotion Cause or Effect in the Mothers of Schizophrenic Young Adults? Schizophrenia Research, 45 (1-2) 65 - 78.
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