Researcher

Title

• Full Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Addictology, Université de Montréal
• Chairholder, Canada Research Chair in Preventative Mental Health and Addiction
• Chairholder, Research Chair in Social and Community Pediatrics
• Scientific Director, FRQS Quebec Research Network on Suicide, Mood Disorders and Associated Conditions
• Université de Montréal’s Dr. Julien/Marcelle and Jean Coutu Foundation Chair in Community Social Pediatrics

• PhD, Clinical Psychology, McGill University, 1998
• BA, Psychology (First Class Honours), McGill University, 1992

Laboratory

Conrodventure Lab

(Conrodventurelab.com)

Her research focuses on cognitive, personality and biological risk factors for the development and maintenance of drug abuse and the factors that mediate the co-occurrence of addictive behaviours with other mental disorders.  Her experimental research focuses on factors that make people more susceptible to seek out behavioral reinforcement from drugs of abuse.  More recently, her research findings have led to the development of new approaches to substance abuse treatment and prevention that target personality risk factors and the underlying motivational determinants of drug use in subtypes of substance misusers. She developed the Preventure Program, which has been identified as an evidence-based prevention program in the UNODC International Standards for Drug Prevention and the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2016 Report on Addiction.

• Substance Use Disorders
• Prevention
• Mental Health
• Impulsivity
• Neuroimaging
• Developmental psychology
• Adolescent cognitive development

Career Summary

Patricia Conrod is a Clinical Psychologist by training and a Full Professor of Psychiatry at the Université de Montréal.  She is based at the Centre de recherche Azrieli du CHU Sainte-Justine, a mother and child hospital Research Centre in Montreal, where she holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Preventative Mental Health and Addiction, and a Research Chair in Social and Community Pediatrics funded by Fondation Julien/Jean & Marcelle Coutu and co-directs Centre IMAGINE, a pediatric neuroimaging research centre. Dr. Conrod is also Scientific Director of the FRQS Quebec Research Network on Suicide, Mood Disorders and Associated Conditions (RQSHA) and the CIHR Canadian Cannabis and Psychosis Research Team, and she leads the Strategy for Neuroscience and Mental Health at the Universite de  Montreal (SENSUM; www.sensum.umontreal.ca).  She was one of five panel members appointed by the Canadian Government to review the Cannabis Act, which published its recommendations in April, 2024.

Major Financing

• Platform Grant (NPI Bray) ; 01/03/2022-01/03/2025. Brain Canada et trois fondations d'hôpital pédiatrique (Sickkids, CHU Sainte Justine, Alberta Children’s). Canadian Pediatric Imaging Platform (C-PIP) – A structured partnership to accelerate our understanding of the brain and the factors that disrupt brain development. Role: PI and site lead.
• SY3 186490 Operating Grant (NPI Conrod); 01/03/2023 – 31/02/2025  Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Contextual factors predicting feasibility and impact of preventive mental health interventions across Canada. Catalyst Grant: Towards Pan-Canadian Standards for Children and Youth Mental Health Services. 
• RL2 183258 Operating Grant (NPI Conrod); 01/03/2022 – 31/02/2027. Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Ten-year Follow-up of the Montreal CoVenture Cohort on Cannabis and Psychosis Outcomes, Cognitive Functioning, and Synaptic Density: A Multimodal Neuroimaging Study with MRI and PET.
• Infrastruture Grant (NPI Conrod); 01/11/2020 – 31/10/2025. Canadian Foundation for Innovation.CRCHUSJ Centre IMAGE: Centre for Imaging across modalities, age, genes and environment.Centre d’Imagerie pour la sante mentale a travers l’age, les genes et l’environement. Role: Director.
• FRQS Thematic Network Grant – (NPI Conrod); 01/04/2020-01/04/2024. Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS) et Fonds de recherche du Québec-Société et culture (FRQSC). Le Réseau Québécois sur le Suicide, les troubles de l'Humeur et les troubles Associés (RQSHA) – Quebec Network on Suicide, Mood Disorders and Related Conditions. Role: Director.
• SSHRC-Partnership Grant (PI Stewart); 1/04/18- 30/06/26. SSHRC. Univenture:  A Partnership to Address Heavy Drinking and Other Substance Misuse on Canadian Univeristy Campuses. Role:  Site PI and coordinator of intervention adaptation and clinical training.
• PJT 155914  (PI Conrod); 01/04/18- 30/06/26. CIHR – Project Grant.  Canadian Underage Substance abuse Prevention (CUSP) Trial: A hybrid effectiveness/ implementation-facilitation trial to increase access to evidence-based drug prevention for Canadian adolescents. Role: PI.
• 1R01DA047119-01 (PIs Garavan and Conrod); 07/01/2018 – 6/30/2024. NIH. ENIGMA-Addiction Study. This grant applies novel Big Data methods to multi-lab combine neuroimaging-genetic datasets to understand the genetic substrates of addiction in brain function and structure. Role: co-PI.
• ERA-NET NEURON-124 2018 (PI: Martinot0; 01/04/18- 30/06/21. CIHR and FRQS. NEURON call on Mental Disorders ADORe : ADORE: targeting adolescent neurocognitive processes in depression to promote intervention response. Rôle: Canadian PI.                                                             

Awards and Distinctions

• Chaire de Recherche du Canada (Sante mentale et prevention)
• Chaire de Recherche Fondation Dr. Julien/Marcelle et Jean Coutu
• FRQS Chercheur Boursier Senior
• FRQS Chercheur Bousier Junior

Presentations

1. Five-year population-level outcomes of a selective prevention program that targets personality risk dimensions for substance use and mental health problems. Keynote Speaker, CAPE; Canadian Academy of Psychiatric Epidemiology,  6 november, Montréal.
2. Conrod, P.J., (2020). Prevention of Substance Abuse. Keynote Speaker, International Society for Addiction Medicine, November 2020.
3. Conrod, P.J., (2019). Neurocognitive risk profiles for substance use disorders and novel interventions targeting such risk. Plenary Speaker, Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Montreal, Canada, May 2019.
4. Conrod, P.J. (2018). Integrating mental health teams with targeted school-based prevention. Plenary Address. 20th Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Care Conference on May 10-11, 2019 at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel. 
5. Conrod, P.J. (2018). New approaches to alcohol and drug prevention targeting neuropsychological risk profiles for addiction. Plenary Addresss 31st European Congress on Neuropharmacology (ECNP) Congress. October 6-9, Barcelona, Spain.

Publications

1. Conrod P, Stewart SH, Seguin J, et al: Five-year outcomes of a school-based, personality-focused prevention program on adolescent substance use disorder: a cluster randomized trial. Am J Psychiatry (in press). Accepted for publication 1 July 2024 (doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.20240042).
2. Wallace J, Boers E, Ouellet J, Afzali MH, Conrod P. Screen time, impulsivity, neuropsychological functions and their relationship to growth in adolescent attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. Sci Rep. 2023 Oct 23;13(1):18108. PMID: 37872184; PMCID: PMC10593930
3. Lynch SJ, Chapman C, Sunderland M, Slade T, Teesson M, Conrod PJ, Newton NC. The 3-year effects of a personality-targeted prevention program on general and specific dimensions of psychopathology. Prev Med. 2023 Aug;173:107595. PMID: 37385412
4. Conrod PJ. Cannabis and Brain Health: What Is Next for Developmental Cohort Studies? Am J Psychiatry. 2022 May;179(5):317-318. PMID: 35491566
5. Boers E, Afzali MH, Newton N, Conrod P. Association of Screen Time and Depression in Adolescence. JAMA Pediatr. 2019 Sep 1;173(9):853-859. PMID: 31305878; PMCID: PMC6632122
6. Morin JG, Afzali MH, Bourque J, Stewart SH, Séguin JR, O'Leary-Barrett M, Conrod PJ. A Population-Based Analysis of the Relationship Between Substance Use and Adolescent Cognitive Development. Am J Psychiatry. 2019 Feb 1;176(2):98-106. PMID: 30278790.
7. Bourque J, Afzali MH, Conrod PJ. Association of Cannabis Use With Adolescent Psychotic Symptoms. JAMA Psychiatry. 2018 Aug 1;75(8):864-866. PubMed PMID: 29874357.
8. Conrod, PJ, and Nikolaou, K (2016).  On the developmental neuropsychology of substance use disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Annual Research Reviews. J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 2016 Mar; 57(3):371-94. PMID:26889898
9. Castellanos-Ryan, N., Struve, M., … *Conrod, P.J., and the IMAGEN Consortium. Neural and cognitive correlates of the common and specific variance across externalizing problems in young adolescence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 2014 Dec 1;171(12): 1310-1319
10. Conrod PJ, O'Leary-Barrett M, Newton N, Topper L, Castellanos-Ryan N, Mackie  C, Girard A. Effectiveness of a selective, personality-targeted prevention program for adolescent alcohol use and misuse: a cluster randomized controlled trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2013 Mar;70(3):334-42. PubMed PMID: 23344135.