Professor of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University
  Department of Psychiatry
Staff Psychiatrist, Capital District Health Authority
Killam Chair in Mood Disorders
Room 3088, Abbie J. Lane Memorial Building
Phone: (902) 473-2712
Fax: (902) 473-4877
E-mail: malda@dal.ca

Professor of Psychiatry, expert in mood disorders and in psychiatric genetics, Dr. Martin Alda is exploring the genetic and biological basis of mood disorders and the nature of response to long-term treatment.

Dr. Alda graduated from Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Prior to joining Dalhousie Medical School in 1998, Dr. Alda taught and practiced psychiatry in Czechoslovakia, at the University of Ottawa, and at McGill University. Currently he holds additional appointments at McGill University, The University of Pittsburgh, and at Charles University in Prague. Clinically Dr. Alda works in the Mood Disorders Program at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax.

The focus of Dr. Alda's group is on major psychiatric disorders and their genetics. Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression are all highly heritable, affect young people, lead to high morbidity and mortality, and can be more or less successfully treated. Three lines of enquiry – mapping genes for these conditions, linking the genetic predisposition with response to treatment, and examining how the genetic risk translates into behavioural and clinical features of the illness are at the core of the research program. To this end they use clinical, molecular-genetic, biochemical, brain-imaging, and neuropsychological methods in studies of patients and their family members.

Dr. Alda's research has been funded by the CIHR since 1997 and also supported by the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation, Genome Quebec, Stanley Foundation, National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD), the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, and Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation.

Dr. Alda has published over 160 original papers and book chapters, and serves on editorial boards of several journals (Bipolar Disorders, Open Neuroscience Journal, Open Psychiatry Journal, Pharmacopsychiatry, and Psychiatrie). He is a member of various scientific organizations, including the European College of Neuropsycho-pharmacology, American Society for Human Genetics, International Society for Psychiatric Genetics, Canadian College of Neuropsycho-pharmacology, and the International Group for the Study of Lithium Treated Patients (IGSLi) and the ConLiGen consortium.

Dr. Alda held the NCDEU Young Investigator Award from the US-based National Institute of Mental Health, the Intermediate Research Fellowship from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, and twice the Independent Investigator Award from NARSAD. Prior to his return to Halifax, he was the Canada Research Chair Tier I at McGill University.

Research Interests:

• Mood disorders: phenomenology, treatment, genetics, and neurobiology
• Psychiatric genetics, pharmacogenetics of psychotropic drugs
• Lithium
• Genetics of complex traits and their heterogeneity