Treatment of Youth Mental Health + Addictions

It is estimated that one in every five North American youths is affected by a mental illness. Surpassed only by injuries, mental illness in youth are ranked as the second highest hospital care expenditure in Canada. Unfortunately, current treatments are not as effective or cause side effects in a large minority, particularly in youth. Furthermore, across all age groups, treatment prescription is too often a trial-and-error process leading to years of untreated conditions, such as depression, before an effective therapy is identified. To tackle these challenges, in this talk, Dr. Farzan will describe how her team is combining engineering and neuroscience disciplines to study the human brain as a circuit. She will then review how by doing so, her team has begun developing novel diagnostic and treatment solutions for debilitating mental illnesses such as youth depression and addiction.