Alasdair Barr

Investigator, BC Children's Hospital

The central focus of my research is mental health and addictions, with a particular emphasis on psychosis and the medications used in its treatment. My research program is based on a multidisciplinary and translational approach that spans from "bench to bedside," as I maintain active research programs in both clinical and related preclinical research.

Working in collaboration with some of Canada's finest researchers, I study "psychosis" from multiple different perspectives. These include both idiopathic schizophrenia-spectrum disorders as well as psychostimulant drug-induced psychosis. Despite different etiologies and patient populations, these conditions share many similarities in terms of symptoms and treatment, and all can be studied in a translational manner. Additional interests include the mechanisms underlying the efficacy and side-effects of antipsychotic drugs, as well as the use of cannabinoids in medicine.