Dr. Donald Addington

Dr. Donald Addington is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the interim director of the Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education.  Dr. Addington is active in research, education clinical practice and administration. His research activities include health services research and knowledge synthesis with a focus on quality and outcome of schizophrenia and particularly First Episode Psychosis Services. His most recent activity has been the development of a Fidelity Scale for First Episode Psychosis Services. He has over 120 peer reviewed publications and has received grants from the National Institutes of Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. Dr. Addington established the psychosis research group at the University of Calgary in 1986. This group has continued to the present time and is now a component of the Mathison Centre. In 1990 published the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia which has become the internationally recognized gold standard for the assessment of depression in schizophrenia and has been translated into 35 languages? Nationally Dr. Addington has chaired working groups for the development of the Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines for Schizophrenia. In Calgary he has obtained competitive health services grant support to develop the First Episode Psychosis services comprised of both first episode psychosis clinics and specialized clinics for those at high risk of developing schizophrenia. These services have now become established components of Alberta Health Services. In addition to his research career Dr. Addington was for 11 years the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Calgary and Head Calgary Health Region Regional Clinical Department of Psychiatry. He has served on a number of committees for the Canadian Institutes for Health Information, the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. In 2011 he was asked to write an invited commentary for the US Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, on Performance Measures for evaluation and quality improvement in the care of individuals with a First Episode Psychosis. He is serving his second term as the Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.