Dr. Stanley Kutcher is a leading psychiatrist and professor who has made major contributions to Canada’s mental health care landscape.
Over the course of his career, he has pioneered research into the causes of and treatments for youth with major mental illnesses such as bipolar, schizophrenia and depression, and has helped many young people to successfully manage their mental health. In December 2018, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada, where he is now putting his decades of medical, academic and policy expertise at the service of Canadians.
On Tuesday, May 7, 2019 (10 AM-11 AM), Senator Kutcher will be at The Royal during Research Week, to moderate the special Incubate to innovate: How next-gen researchers are re-shaping the mental health landscape panel session, where he will explore the latest transformative mental health research and discuss the significance of research within the broader policy landscape with our seven Emerging Research Innovators in Mental Health (eRIMh) scientists.
Ahead of this exciting panel session, Senator Kutcher took the time out of his busy schedule to talk to the IMHR about the importance of research innovation, current challenges within the mental health research landscape, and why support for young researchers is critical.
IMHR:How important is the role of research is in improving diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental illness? What are some of the biggest challenges that currently exist in the research and care environment?
SK: Research is essential, as when it is done properly, it allows us to answer questions that our care for patients raises. Of the three domains identified – diagnosis, treatment and prevention - the most challenging of the three, in my opinion, is diagnosis.
We have come a long way from the landscape of the 1950’s and 1960’s where one of the most reliable criteria for diagnostic congruence was the location in which the clinicians had been trained. But we have also seen in stark terms the impact of ideology and the marketplace in the development and codification of our current diagnostic system. This is of particular poignancy when the [former] head of the DSM task force [the group appointed by the American Psychiatric Association to oversee the drafting of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; a manual that plays a vital role in assuring that patients get proper diagnoses and treatments for their mental health concerns], Dr. Allan Frances, felt compelled to write a book called Saving Normal (which by the way I would recommend as standard reading - along with Stephen Pinker’s The Blank Slate - for every psychiatrist, psychologist and mental health care provider). [In the book, Frances argues about the dangers of inflating psychiatric conditions and diagnoses.]
I, for one, am concerned with the increasing tendency to label all existential experiences as pathology. Nervous is not Anxiety. Sad is not Depression. Umbrage is not trauma. This has been so unhelpful on so many fronts.
The advent of increasingly better understanding how the human brain works in health and in ill-health will hopefully help us in this diagnostic journey. But, one thing that I have learned in research is that you can’t predict when you will find what you find. It’s a process that has its own rhythm - one that we pretend to understand at our peril. Humility is essential. Perseverance is necessary. Serendipity is always welcomed.
IMHR:You are a strong advocate for youth mental health – how critical do you see the role of research innovation in improving outcomes for young people, particularly?
SK: We have learned much about both normal human development and the onset and impact of mental disorders on the lives of young people and their families – but we have so much more yet to know. Without the careful, considered, ideologically and revenue-independent hypothesis creating and then testing research we will not move the needle. I am not pleased that given all that we have learned in the last 30 years, the largest single challenge in youth mental health still remains essentially unchanged - the ability to rapidly access best evidence- based mental health care for those who need it. We have had decades of awareness building and virtue signaling. Yet, it is difficult for us to point to how we have moved the needle on this fundamental and essential need. This is not fair to those who are not well, and it is not fair to the common wealth either. We need solid research to help us get to the next step.
IMHR: On Tuesday, May 7, 2019 you will be meeting with our seven eRIMh scientists to discuss their latest research accomplishments and discuss challenges/opportunities within the mental health care landscape. What are you most looking forward to?
SK: I am most looking forward to listening to young people who are not afraid to think critically and who are not afraid of failure when they devise and deliver experiments designed to test their hypotheses. If we fear failure we will stay safe in our space and not venture into where the answers to our questions reside.
"As the saying goes: “boats are safe in the harbour but the ocean is where the fish are”. Young scientists should not be harbour bound."
IMHR:Why do you think it is important for policy makers and institutions to focus on supporting young, early-career mental health researchers?
SK: Our future as a discipline and as a human entity depends not on opening the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error. Our common task is to do this - and it is the young people armed with new questions and the rigour of the method that can help us on this journey, as a discipline and as a society (in Canada and globally) to keep moving on this path.
*This interview has been edited for length