By: Grace Kuang
McMaster president Patrick Deane is approaching the end of his second five year-term in his role as president at the university. Over the past nine years, Deane oversaw significant changes at McMaster, such as the addition of new infrastructural developments and interdisciplinary programs at the university.
“It will be extremely difficult to leave McMaster,” said Deane. “I was welcomed here nine years ago and from that first day to this, I have been amazed at the ground-breaking work of our researchers, the commitment of our students to making a difference, and the dedication of the staff, alumni and friends of the university to expanding McMaster’s impact on our community and our world.”
In 2011, Deane penned a letter addressing the McMaster community titled “Forward with Integrity: A Letter to the McMaster Community.” In the letter, Deane emphasized that all of McMaster’s continued success will depend on the cultivation of integrity.
The letter advocated for integrity in four key and interconnected areas: student experience, specifically experiential learning, self-directed learning and interdisciplinary education, research, McMaster’s relationship with the surrounding community and the university’s dedication to internationalization.
“At McMaster, the evidence is that in the category of ‘Enriching Educational Experiences,’ which includes experiential activities, we fare a little better than our sister institutions in Ontario, but not as well as comparable U.S. Peers,” reads part of the letter.
Over the last few years, McMaster has focused heavily on experiential learning, most recently developing an innovation minor for students and partnering with Riipen Networks to create a continuing education project-based learning course.
Another one of Deane’s priorities concerned interdisciplinary education. During Deane’s term, interdisciplinary programs such as the justice, political philosophy and law program and the integrated business and humanities program were created.
In his letter, Deane also stressed his goals for internationalization.
“Internationalization of the university by the presence of foreign students, by faculty involvement in a network of research alliances abroad, by faculty and student travel for research and development purposes, and above all by the adoption of an internationalized perspective in curriculum and program design on our campus: this is not only desirable and appropriate to present circumstances, it is urgently needed,” reads part of the letter.
McMaster’s model for global engagement was solidified in 2017. In addition, last year, tuition was reduced for international PhD students.
As such, it appears that some of Deane’s largest and most controversial initiatives were implemented within the last year.
One of these was the smoke and tobacco-free campus policy, which entailed the university becoming the first one in the province to claim to be 100 per cent spoke-free.
While the policy was praised by some, other students and groups, particularly the McMaster Students Union Student Representative Assembly, cautioned against the policy in an effort to prioritize “considerations of student safety, accessibility and comprehensive access to McMaster University when considering implementation.”
This past year, Deane also helped create and implement McMaster’s free expression guidelines, which evoked mixed reactions from the campus community. The guidelines sought to strike a balance between protecting free speech and the right to protest.
However, a number of students, specifically student activists, expressed concern that the guidelines would stifle dissension and silence marginalized voices.
Deane will be departing for Queen’s University in July 2019. Currently, it is uncertain who will replace Deane as McMaster’s next president.
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By: Sam Marchetti
In the recent municipal election, McMaster University students living in Ward 1 were presented with quite the challenge: 15 candidates for mayor and 13 candidates for Ward 1 councillor. This sums to 28 candidates with 28 different platforms that could potentially affect student voters.
Students make up a substantial fraction of Ward 1 and yet the majority likely did not know all their options when they headed to the polls–that is, if they went to the polls at all. The Oct. 22 election saw one of the worst voter turnouts in the city’s history.
Considering that there were just under 9,000 ballots cast in Ward 1, and McMaster has an undergraduate population of about 27,000, it is safe to say that the majority of students did not cast their ballot.
There must be a reason for low student turnout. A quick poll among classmates revealed that most students did not know enough about the election and the candidates to think it was worth their time to cast a vote. Even among my own housemates, I know they didn’t cast a ballot just because they had no idea who to vote for.
Our new Ward 1 councillor, Maureen Wilson, won by over a 20 per cent margin. It is also interesting to note that Maureen Wilson was one of the most active candidates on social media and out in the community, with a large committee campaigning for her, knocking on doors and putting up signs.
One of the key points she made that attracted lots of attention and approval was her dedication to improving transit and completing the light rail transit system. However, I have serious doubts that most voters knew anything beyond this or even the platform of any other candidate.
It makes sense; who wants research different 28 candidates? That takes a lot of time and effort that most students can’t afford. But if anyone who had voted for Wilson based solely on her transit platform done a little more research, they might have noticed another candidate, Jason Allen.
Allen was also committed to improving our public transit, but had the added benefit of a background working in transit management. This clearly appealed to many voters who did the necessary research, since he was able to secure a second-place spot in the election.
I am not any better. I may have researched four of those 28 candidates, at most.
It is clear that with the sheer number of people running in Hamilton’s municipal elections, the municipal elections office has a responsibility to make every candidate’s platforms and publicized background easier to access.
It is true that newspapers like The Silhouette did offer summarized platforms of each of the 28 candidates. But this is not enough; the responsibility to provide an all-platform resource should not fall solely on external news outlets.
When we lack a system like this, we risk voters missing out on a candidate who may not have had the resources to run the most visible campaign, but could more accurately represent the feelings of our community. The lack of a municipally created and promoted all-platform resource seriously discourages a large number of people from making their voices heard.
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[spacer height="20px"]Spurred by a love of music and a drive to help others, McMaster second year arts and science student Zach Levine has created a choir for those suffering from Parkinson’s disease in Hamilton.
The Hamilton Parkinson’s Chorus, which started in September and meets once a week on campus, is open to any in the Parkinson’s community and is free of charge.
When asked how the idea for a choir began, Levine, the founder and director, said he simply saw a need in the community and was particularly inspired by volunteering over the summer with Singing With Parkinson’s, a choir in Toronto where he saw how much good a choir like this could bring.
“I realized there was not already a choir in Hamilton,” said Levine. “I thought, I have been singing in a choir for about 11 years and music is something I have always used to improve my mood anyway. And because there is such a direct connection between music and people with Parkinson’s and improvement in vocal speech production, I figured this was an area I could help the Hamilton community.”
For assistant director Liam Cresswell, there is a personal connection to Parkinson’s. Over the summer, a mother of a close friend was diagnosed with the disease.
“This is an initiative that is very close to my heart, and is my own way of supporting her,” Cresswell said.
According to Levine, the benefits of a choir for people with Parkinson’s is also backed by scientific research. After he came up with the idea, Levine began looking very closely into Parkinson’s disease and the science behind music and its effects on the particular condition.
“I went into the McMaster library and probably read almost everything there was about group singing and Parkinson’s and music therapy for Parkinson’s,” said Levine.
Levine’s look into Parkinson’s disease has helped him better understand how to run such a choir and make it enjoyable and even beneficial to their condition.
“We have modeled our rehearsals and the exercises we do in rehearsals based on the exercises shown in research to have benefit,” Levine said. “The idea is to build a community based on well-established research.”
The choir began as a simple idea but required a great deal of work and collaboration. Levine and Cresswell put up posters at Hamilton hospitals and visited them to recruit members. They also worked with arts and science program director Jean Wilson and school of the arts professor Dr. Andrew Mitchell for logistical support, including the search for an accessible rehearsal space.
Levine has also been working closely with Parkinson’s Canada, meeting weekly to discuss the initiative.
While a choir is typically centered around rehearsing and performing music, the purpose of this choir is much more than that. According to Levine, it is about building a community, raising awareness about the disease and having some fun while doing so.
“We are not really concerned about how we sound. It is more about making sound and sharing the experience of singing with others,” said Levine.
Levine and Cresswell have already received positive feedback from the participants. In the future, the choir may hold concerts and other joint fundraising events with other choirs. For now, however, Levine is still looking to recruit members and simply focus on ensuring an enjoyable experience for the members.
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In the search to understand how heavily music can impact one’s cognitive abilities and reactions, a one-of-a-kind research facility came to life at McMaster University.
Located on the second floor of the Psychology Complex, the McMaster Large Interactive Virtual Environment Lab was founded in 2014 by Laurel Trainor and Dan Bosnyak. The 106-seat auditorium and testing facility was designed to explore the experience of music, dance and multimedia presentations while considering how these art forms impact human interaction.
“For many years I’ve been doing research on music and how people perceive music and how infants develop a sense of musicality and some of the effects music has on the brain, but [this research] was all done on individuals,” said Trainor. “A person would come into the lab and we would measure their brain responses but if you think about it, music is usually a social phenomenon.”
LIVElab research often revolves around the social phenomenon of music as a whole conducting studies areound live concerts and looking into the impact of music on one’s social life.
“We go to concerts with other people, we listen to music with other people, we play music with other people... we were interested in the aspect of what it is about live music when you’re experiencing it, either playing with other people or listening to music with other people, what is it that’s special about [the social aspect of that].”
Trainor and Bosnyak worked to establish the LIVELab in an effort to continue the music cognition research that has been the leading focus of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind. MIMM is composed of 28 core members from various disciplines, including science, engineering and humanities and across multiple institutions including Stanford, University of California Merced, Western and the Rotman Research Institute.
At any given time, the LIVELab is conducting a range of studies in collaboration with scientists, industry partners, health professionals, educators and performing artists. Studies surrounding performance anxiety, the effects of bodily movements on performers and audiences, the effects of movement in neurodegenerative diseases and the effects of various teaching techniques on attention span are featured regularly.
Research at the LIVELab is aimed at the theoretical understanding of the impact music has on the brain, in addition to the ways in which these theories can be applied to business, health, education public policy and artistic creation.
The LIVELab is the only facility in the world that offers acoustic manipulation of the room in addition to the synchronization of brain response, heart rate, breathing rate, sweat response, muscle contraction and motion. When studying the audience, the LIVELab can analyze up to 32 participants simultaneously, where the average lab may only be able to hold one to five participants comfortably with these technologies.
Through unique architectural designs, including room-within-room construction, a floating floor, a concrete outer ceiling and acoustic panels, the LIVELab is thousands of times quieter than a typical classroom, with a background noise level of only 10 dB. With this advantage, researchers can use the Meyer Sound Active Acoustic System to digitally recreate any kind of environment, from a cathedral to concert hall. This system can also recreate sound to simulate real environments, including restaurant ambient noise, for example. The Active Acoustic technology helps in studying hearing aids in realistic environments, music in different acoustic environments and showcasing uniquely sounding performances.
Using a simple, unobtrusive and lightweight transmitter, researchers can capture muscle activity from up to eight separate channels, in addition to biological activity and temperature. By studying the changes in audience physiology in response to a performance or media piece, researchers are able to track changes in heart rate, provide live feedback to performers, see muscle use measurement from moving participants and much more.
With a wall of nine Mitsubishi low bezel screens, researchers at the LIVELab are able to present image or video to the audience in order to study stimuli in research studies, market research or presentations. This model of screen was selected as they do not produce noise while in operation. The stimuli presented through these screens can also be synchronized with the response tablets in any given study.
Using a Qualysis Motion Capture System, researchers can precisely capture the motion of audience members and participants. All of the markers in this system are simple and can easily be placed on desired joints to capture movement throughout the room. Motion capture technology helps in the study of movement in Parkinson’s disease, the movement of dancers and musicians, and capturing the positions of audience members’ heads for further market and health research.
KEMAR is a manikin that has calibrated binaural microphones, which can record sound the way in which a real human would hear, allowing the possibility to have recordings of the LIVELab’s sound environment as any real participant would have. This technology can help in hearing aid testing, archiving performances and unique media.
As a collaboration with CoBALT Connects, the LIVELab features a space of 100 Android tablets that can collect live responses from audience members during performances or multimedia presentations. This technology is increasingly valuable to market research, behavioural studies and audience feedback during performances.
The LIVELab is used for several outreach events throughout the year. Their 10dB concert series, launched in 2015, takes advantage of the room’s technology in order to hold unique performances throughout the school year. In the lab, researchers are able to monitor the heart rate and/or brain activity of the artists and enable audience reactions in order to influence the production or performance.
This year’s concert series will include Darcy Hepner and Rufus Cappadocia, The Madawaska String Quartet, Adi Braun and Diana Panton. There will be a mix of jazz, cabaret, rock and classical performances in the space. All date listings be found on the LIVELab’s website by September 8.
Outside of events, the LIVELab continuously invites individuals to participate in a variety of studies that are being conducted throughout the year. Anyone can sign up to join the participant pool on the McMaster LIVELab website.
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By: Abdullah El-Sayes
Antibiotic resistance has been an issue for decades. Infections that were once easy to cure are no longer treatable as microbes have become resistant to the drugs that kill them. This leads to detrimental effects. It has been 30 years since the last antibiotic drug has been released. The World Health Organization accentuates that impact this may have on humanity and has released a list of pathogenic superbugs in an effort to increase antibiotic research and development through government and the private sector investments.
How did this start in the first place?
When antibiotics are prescribed to patients, they are expected to comply with the usage instructions and continue taking the drugs even if the symptoms have vanished to ensure all the pathogenic microbes are eliminated from the body. When this procedure is not abided, pathogens remain and drug-resistant bacteria may be formed via mutations and increase the population of resistant microbes. WHO claims that in countries without standard treatment, antibiotics are over-prescribed and overused by the public. This only adds to the problem. Antibiotics used for cattle within farms further contribute to the misuse of these drugs, and elevate the chance of microbes becoming drug-resistant.
What are the consequences we face?
A growing list of infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poisoning and gonorrhoea are becoming harder to treat as they become more resistant to antibiotics. Some infections are now untreatable. An infamous example of this would be the TB pandemic. During mid-late twentieth-century, TB was once treatable using antibiotics, but infections resurged during the 1980s and thereafter due to drug resistant strains making them harder to treat. This case draws attention to the importance of antibiotic research and development. As more microbes become resistant, more antibiotics will be required to subside the associated infections.
What can we do to prevent further harm?
WHO claims that behavioural changes are important to reduce antibiotic resistance. These actions include being careful with vaccinations and sharing needles, always washing our hands, practising safer sex, and good food hygiene. Nonetheless, these measures are not adequate to eliminate neither these microbes nor their harm among us. Dr. Eric Brown and his team based at McMaster University have conducted promising work towards resolving this crisis.
What research is being done now, and what has been discovered?
This research team has tested 1440 drugs with expired patents against some of the most deleterious bacteria. The specific microbes were gram-negative bacteria, which have a rigid protective outer shell. Due to this, few antibiotics are able to defeat this specific bacteria type. However, pentamidine, a drug used to fight parasites in the 1930s, was found to form holes in the rigid outer shell of the bacteria. Additional antibiotics may then be supplemented to reach beyond the holes of the shell and finally devastate the bacteria and the infections associated with them. The experiments were conducted in dishes and mice. The results have been great, but still have a long way to go.
When asked about what the next steps are, Dr. Brown stated, “A trial in humans. … After all, pentamidine is already a drug that could be combined with other antibiotics in order to gather evidence in the clinic that this will work in humans.” He also added, “Pentamidine does have well known side effects, but these are manageable.”
Although this research is a relief to us, we cannot become too content, as resistant bacteria strains are not shy of showing up and causing damage.
“No one, including the public, should feel comfortable with the state of the art in antibiotic therapies. … The problem of drug-resistant bacteria is large and becoming worse every day,” said Dr. Brown.
Overall, antibiotic resistance is a serious tribulation we face, but research at McMaster University has taken a leap forward at resolving this issue. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for greater investment towards antibiotic research and development, so that we no longer have to stress about this pressing issue.
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The federal government has given McMaster researchers a financial tip of the hat.
On June 23, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council announced a $15.7 million funding grant as part of a nationwide $465 million project. Over 100 McMaster researchers will use the money. Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan made the announcement on campus and McMaster received the largest investment of all Canadian universities.
“The NSERC Discovery program is incredibly important to us as an institution,” said Patrick Deane, McMaster’s President, in a press release posted by Daily News McMaster.
“These awards support our scientists in their fundamental research efforts, their commitment to technology transfer and knowledge mobilization, and their training of the next generation of leaders.”
The grant specifically recognized ten scientists and engineers because they “show strong potential” to become industry leaders. These individuals will receive a Discovery Accelerator Supplement of $120,000 over three years.
McMaster’s use for the DAS is varied. Wildlife will get a look, as some researchers will explore the social behavior of fish, worm metabolism or the genetic mutations of flies.
Other projects include research into designing earthquake resilient buildings and mitigating risk with freight transportation.
Leyla Soleymani, an engineering physicist, spoke on behalf of those receiving the grant and explained what the new funding means to her.
“The additional resource of the Discovery Accelerator Supplement will allow me to add new members to my research team, which will accelerate my ability to create the handheld biosensor of the future – capable of detecting and diagnosing infectious diseases, cancers and medical conditions,” said Soleymani.
McMaster, regarded as one of the top research institutions in the world, should maintain its position with the windfall of money.
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By: Anna Goshua and Arshia Javidan/ Meducator
Why do we get sick? Moreover, why do we get better? That essentially encapsulates the research being done by Dawn Bowdish and her team at McMaster University’s Immunology Research Centre. Bowdish is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, and her research focuses on pneumonia, the most costly bacterial infection in Ontario.
The bacteria that causes pneumonia is initially found in the nose, where no symptoms are observed unless it enters the lungs, bloodstream or cerebrospinal fluid. Bowdish specifically investigates why the bacteria leaves the nose in the first place, with a focus on the aging population.
“We’re particularly focused on older adults, as they contract pneumonia at much higher rates, and the consequences can be very serious,” Bowdish said. The long-term complications of contracting pneumonia include increased risk of dementia, type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease later on in life. In order to shed light on why older individuals are more susceptible to contracting pneumonia, Bowdish researches age-related changes in the immune system that may be involved.
The data is compelling in demonstrating that as we age, our levels of inflammation increase. Inflammation is a cellular response to injury or infection that is carried out by the immune system. Many age-related diseases, such as conditions involving dementia, some forms of cancer and cardiovascular disease, are linked to inflammation.
“For reasons that we’re just beginning to understand, this increasing inflammation seems to impair white blood cell function. The bacteria is able to capitalize on these inflammatory changes in the immune system in order to thrive,” Bowdish explained.
“We think that we can target age-related inflammation as a way of improving immunity. We’re testing this in an animal model at the moment. By reducing their age-related inflammation, we can improve their outcomes from pneumonia, which is a finding we’re quite excited about,” she said.
If the preclinical testing phase determines that age-related inflammation is a viable drug target, then the next phase would be a drug-screening program that would further examine the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory drugs in improving immune function. This drug has the potential to decrease the risk of devastating illnesses such as pneumonia.
Bowdish has seen how older adults benefit younger generations. “I think grandparents are really important. There’s a lot of data to support the positive role of older adults in society. They volunteer more hours than younger people and they provide a lot of unpaid caregiving. So we want them to be as healthy as they can possibly be. Essentially, my research is about keeping grandchildren and grandparents together for many years to come.”
Photo Credit: Yung Lee/ Photo Reporter
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By: Lauren Beals
What if you could eradicate a disease from the face of the planet, but doing so would mean taking away resources from prevalent health concerns? What if someone asked you if modern research should continue to use tissues samples from third world countries, even if the sample population felt exploited? Maybe you would flip a coin. Or you could call in the experts.
No better experts could be found than those at McMaster. Recently, the University has assembled their own A-team of global health ethicists with the new Program on Ethics and Policy Information.
Meagan Kay-Fowlow, the Program Manager for PEPI, describes the program as “an ethics consultation and research program” dedicated to helping “stakeholders in global health research navigate through the ethical challenges that impact their work.” This may include overcoming ethical barriers that threaten global health projects, anticipating ethical risks or enhancing the quality of current programs.
Take the example of the emerging Zika virus. PEPI might look at ethical questions regarding its elimination through vector control, or work with policy makers as they try to ethically mitigate its spread. Researchers could also consult PEPI as they create projects to better understand the virus.
Beyond global consulting, PEPI also supports the independent pursuits of its team members encouraging collaboration with local scholars.
“We’re really excited to be at McMaster because there’s already so many great people working on issues in Global Health,” said Kay-Fowlow. “There’s a great deal of potential for research collaboration on exciting and pressing issues.”
Leading the charge is Claudia Emerson, PEPI’s Director. A former senior scientist with the University of Toronto, Emerson brings a wealth of experience from roles with the University Health Network and as a core investigator with the Ethical, Social, Cultural Program for Global Health funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“She is a critical asset,” said Kay-Fowlow. “She sets the vision for the work we do.” Emerson, who established the program at McMaster, also conducts her own research on disease eradication with notable works including malaria and polio advocacy among other issues.
To many people, Emerson’s bold ideas can be intimidating and often deter them from getting involved. To others, their only experience with ethics is approval from the research ethics board before a thesis. PEPI aims to change that.
“We hear this a lot. It’s also a perspective we are trying to change,” said Kay-Fowlow. “The perception is that paying attention to ethics means that scientists have extra work to do, or have more hoops to jump through. But we see ethics as enabling, paying attention can enhance the quality and efficacy of projects.”
She also hopes to involve the student community through social media and emerging initiatives. “We’re hoping to engage in some interesting discussions and we’ll definitely be sharing information about ethical issues and work that we’re doing in this area,” said Kay-Fowlow.
Despite their difficulty, ethical questions are vital to innovation in the modern world, and working toward their answers can reap real benefits.
“It’s very rewarding to see the impact of the work,” explained Kay-Fowlow. “Many of the questions we face relate to the challenges posed by cutting edge technologies, and it’s very stimulating to try and figure out how we can harness that power to achieve some good.”
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McMaster researcher Hendrick Poinar and an international team of researchers have uncovered telling secrets from the grave. The research focuses on the recovery of DNA from fossil remains such as teeth from individuals who died from the bubonic plague in Marseille, France. DNA sequences can be used to trace the past and answer questions about the evolution of infectious disease.
“We are very interested in how diseases emerge and then continually re-emerge. We want to know if reservoirs are local or more distant. Are these epidemics repeatedly stemming from trade routes like the Silk Road from China and the Golden Horn from Kazakhstan or are they a localized epidemic?” Poinar explained.
This involves tracing back to Europe in 1346, during the time of the Black Death, when the bacteria Yersinia pestis wiped out a third of the European population.
“That was an epidemic like we have never seen before and hopefully will never see again,” said Poinar.
After an initial flare, the plague seemed to disappear in Europe. What followed its supposed demise is a series of little outbreaks that Poinar labeled as the “shouldering effect.”
“We are very interested in how diseases emerge and the continually re-emerge. We want to know if resevoirs are local or more distant.
“If you look over the course of decades, you see relatively nasty outbreaks. You have basically 400 years of repeated epidemics in Europe, until it disappears. The question has been if these are repeated epidemics that occur every 30 to 100 years, is the source of these epidemics a migration of pathogen from the East to the West.”
By analyzing the global phylogeny, a method of relating disease sequences and strains to each other, researchers observed that rodents are at the start of many diseases that reach human populations. The aforementioned rodents seem to have these basal strains or ancestral strains appear in the highlands of Mongolia and China and Kazakhstan. These sources are farther east from the European outbreaks, supporting research that the initial flare of Black Death was brought from the East along trade routes.
At least in the case of the plague that overtook Marseille, the pathogen was found to be a descendant of the Yersinia pestis strain. Contrary to the constant dribble of plague down trade routes, the pathogen must have remained in a reservoir closer to home. What these reservoirs are thought to be is the next big question. Rats could be to blame, or soil, however no answer is currently known.
“We have had major outbreaks in Eastern Europe up until the 1800s. In mainland Europe, it hasn’t [popped up] since 1720. We have about 400 years that were clear of outbreaks.” This could be as a result of attenuation in the variance of the bug, or a rise in resistance among humans. One of Poinar’s students is working on just that, looking for signs of selection within the human genome. This involves searching for resistance to the epidemic in the genes of those of European descent whose ancestors survived to pass on their protective genes.
Interestingly, having resistance to the Black Death can also give someone resistance to various other pathogens. A genomic mutation known to give people resistance to the HIV virus by blocking the virus from entering the cell has been found in higher frequency in Europe, despite the virus’ origin in Africa. You would expect the exact opposite, where populations exposed to the virus in greater amounts would undergo greater selection and therefore greater resistance.
“When you try to date the [onset of resistance], most of those dates show up around the time of the Black Death. So there is the issue that those that underwent a selection against plague and survived because of this genomic deletion, they were protected from the bacteria of the plague and now protected from the virus of HIV,” explained Poinar.
Rising concerns about antibiotic resistance has shifted a focus towards what causes the reappearance of bacterial infections. By attempting to dig up the roots of infectious diseases, researchers like Poinar are looking to uncover more about pathogens and their fluctuating attacks.
Photo Credit: Jason Lau
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Dr. Zena Samaan hopes to tackle the stigmatization surrounding drug addiction with her recent study on opioid addiction in women.
Samaan, a Staff Psychiatrist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare and Assistant Professor at McMaster, noticed an alarming trend when speaking to patients about their mental health challenges. Many patients reported opioid prescriptions. Opioids are painkillers that Dr. Samaan has seen given to women post-childbirth, with back pain or have suffered a trauma like a car accident. Painkillers can be prescribed for many years.
“The striking part was that many of them didn’t realize they were addicted to these medications,” said Dr. Samaan, who looked at opiate users within Canada to find a common thread among their addiction.
In order to gather participants for the study, investigators reached out to community treatment clinics. Participants were then asked to identify the factor that first led them to opiate use.
After interviewing 500 people, Dr. Samaan found that 52 percent of the women were first exposed to opiates in the form of a prescription from a physician. This trend was found to be less prevalent in men, with only 33 percent receiving a prescription for the same exposure.
It was also found that male and female addicts had different life circumstances. For example, women with opioid addictions were more likely to have childcare responsibilities. Many of the women in the study were also found to have received an education but not be working, putting them at risk for financial assistance.
The difference might stem from the fact that women are more likely to reach out for medical assistance than men. Furthermore, social stigmas classifying men as risk takers may contribute to a decreased likelihood for men to receive a prescription for painkillers from physicians.
This finding calls for a need in the development of better treatment programs. Dr. Samaan explained, “We need do better in tailoring treatment to what women need and what men need. The treatment at the moment is ‘one size fits all.’”
Nor is the current treatment protocol exactly a quick fix. In the population used for the study, treatments lasted for an average of three years but can extend beyond that.
“At the moment, when somebody has an addiction to opioids, they cannot just stop it. Withdrawal symptoms can be very dangerous — they can have convulsions, seizures, [or lapse into a] coma. The treatment is to substitute what they have been using with a synthetic opioid such as methadone.”
From there, doses are decreased, the ultimate goal being to wean them off drug dependence. Other medications like opioid antagonists do also exist, however methadone remains the first line of treatment in Ontario.
“Some services may have some counselling, but mostly related to how do we make you stop using the drugs rather than what other needs do they have.” In women, this ties back to challenges posed by child bearing responsibilities as well as increased likelihood of familial struggles. The services do not cater to these types of problems at the moment,” laments Dr. Samaan.
With about half of the patients attending treatment centers also suffering from psychiatric problems, there is a dearth of psychological support in treatment.
“What we are advocating for is to have a more comprehensive treatment service [that melds] addiction treatment with mental health [strategies] and social service treatment,” explained Dr. Samaan. This would involve counseling and the cooperation of child protection agencies and social services.
Another option would be to limit the prescription of painkillers in the first place, the use of which for more than a few days is not recommended.
“The other thing this work is showing us is the stigma associated with opioid addiction. People often think that these are young people going out on the streets trying to get high, but in many of these women it is medically induced rather than because of risk-taking behaviours.”
Photo Credit: McMaster Daily News
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