In the research field, the Department strives to create an identity that embodies the creative interactions of molecular, socio-cultural, intervention and prevention sciences analogous to the biopsychosocial medical model in clinical psychiatric management. We rise to the community’s unanswered silent needs for mental health service planning for severe mental illness and the highly prevalent mental disorders of all ages through our enormous research efforts in mapping the epidemiology of mental illnesses. The epidemiologic findings of the “Shatin Survey” launched in the 1980s, being the pioneering work in Hong Kong, served the cornerstone for subsequent regional mental health service planning. Over time the Department of Psychiatry has been recognized for its unique ability to articulate translational research themes that integrate multiple perspectives when considering clinical psychiatric problems of great public health significance. The diverse yet well-chosen themes address the epidemiologic profiles and correlates of dementia and common sleep disorders, effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatment for dementia, neuropsychiatric and genetic aspects of dementia and sleep disorders, biopsychosocial risk factors for suicide across life-span, transcultural psychiatry, eating disorders, stroke-related psychiatric morbidity and quality of life in severe mental illness.

Currently the Department has three Research Units:

With an increasing aging population, dementia care has become a pressing issue for many countries.  The Dementia Research Unit of the Department was set up in 1998 to organize and promote research in this area.  The unit invites local and international collaborations.  Its research focus is the genetic, epidemiological, and clinical aspects of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.

1. Lam LC, Tam CW, Lui VW, Chan WC, et al. Prevalence of very mild and mild dementia in community dwelling Chinese older persons in Hong Kong. Int Psychogeriatrics, 2008;20:135-48.
   
2. Lam LC, Tam CW, Lui VW, Chan WC, et al. Screening of mild cognitive impairment in Chinese older adults – a multi-stage validation of the Chinese abbreviated MCI (CAMCI) test, Neuroepidemiology, 2008;30:6-12.
   
3. Lam LC, Tam CW, Lui VW, et al. Use of Clinical Dementia Rating in detecting early cognitive deficits in a community based sample of Chinese older persons in Hong Kong. Alz Dis Asso Disord,2008;22:153-7.
   
4. Ma SL, Tang NL, Zhang YP, Ji LD, Tam CW, Lui VW, Chiu HF, Lam LC.  Association of prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2) polymorphisms and Alzheimer's disease in Chinese. Neurobiol Aging. 2008;29:856-60.
   
5. Lam LC, Tam CW, Lui VW, et al. Modality of physical exercise and cognitive function in Hong Kong older Chinese community. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry, Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2008 Jul 10.

The Sleep Assessment Unit (SAU) is established in 1986 and currently providing services at Shatin Hospital. SAU provides professional training to clinicians and technicians in sleep medicine in Hong Kong and from overseas. SAU also handles referral cases and conducts sleep assessments for patients from children to elderly with various sleep disorders, including insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, narcolepsy, sleepwalking and rapid-eye-movement sleep behavior disorder. Since its inception, SAU has conducted more than 6,500 sleep studies for close to 5,000 patients, and actively undergone a number of epidemiological and clinical sleep researches. To ensure quality assessment services and treatments, SAU is going to upgrade its equipments to meet with the standards of international research and services, thus benefiting more patients with sleep disorders.

1. Wing YK, Lam SP, Li SX, Yu MWM, Fong SYY, Tsoh JMY, Ho CKW, Lam VKH. REM sleep behavioral disorder in Hong Kong Chinese – a clinical outcome study. (in press) Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
2. Wing YK, Chen L, Fong SYY, Ng MHL, Ho CKW, Cheng SH, Tang NLS, Li AM. Narcolepsy in Southern Chinese – Clinical characteristic, HLA typing and seasonal of birth. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 2008;79:1262-1267.
3. Lam SP, Fong SYY, HO CKW, Yu MWM, Wing YK. Parasomnia among psychiatric out-patients: A clinical epidemiology study. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 2008;69;9:1374-1382.
4. Chen L, Fong YY, Lam CW, Tang NLS, Ng MHL, Li AM, Ho CKW, Lam SP, Cheng SH, Lau KM, Wing YK. The Familial risk and HLA susceptibility among Narcolepsy patients in Hong Kong Chinese. Sleep. 2007; 30: 851-858.
5. Wing YK, Hui S, Pak W, Ho C, Cheung A, Li AM, Fok TF. A controlled study of Sleep related Disordered Breathing in obese children. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 2003; 88: 1043-1047.

The Suicide Research Unit was established in 2004 to address the worldwide public health burden related to suicidal behavior. Our primary goal is to build collaborative national and international research network that ultimately translates research findings to effective intervention strategies and health policies. Our unit has been working closely with the World Health Organization, Peking University’s Institute of Mental Health, The University of Rochester’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide through a number of research projects that investigate biopsychosocial risk factors for suicide in high-risk communities and population sectors in Hong Kong and China, namely “Psychological Autopsy Study of Elderly Suicide in Hong Kong”, “Psychological Autopsy Study of Non-elder Suicide in Hong Kong”, “Prevalence of Suicidal Ideation and Its Correlates in Rural Chinese Residents Ages 16-34 in Mianyang, Sichuan”, “Cerebrovascular Risk Factors and Late-Life Suicide”, “Trend analysis of suicide surveillance data and evaluation of the effect of SARS outbreak on elderly suicide rates in Hong Kong”, “Epidemiologic survey on prevalence of clinically significant depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among cognitively-impaired elders in the community” and “WHO’s START!” (World Health Organization’s International Collaborative and Comparative Study in the Western Pacific Region, Suicide Trends in At-Risk Territories). The series of high-quality suicide studies have received supports from competitive research grants such as the Research Grant Council and the US Federal Government’s National Institute of Health.

1. Chiu HFK, Yip PSF, Chi I, Chan SSM, Tsoh J, Kwan CW, Li SF, Conwell Y, Caine ED. Elderly Suicide in Hong Kong– A case--controlled Psychological Autopsy Study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 2004; 109(4): 299-305.
2. Tsoh J, Chiu HF, Duberstein PR, Chan S, Chi I, Yip PS, Conwell Y. Attempted suicide in elderly Chinese persons: a multi-group, controlled study. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 2005;13(7):562-71.
3. Chan SSM, Chiu HFK, Lam LCW, Leung VPY. Elderly Suicide and the 2003 SARS epidemic in Hong Kong SAR. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 2006; 21:113-118.
4. Sandra S Chan, Jeffrey M Lyness, Conwell Yeates. Do Cerebrovascular Risk Factors Confer Risk for Suicide in Later Life? A Case-Control Study. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 2007; 15(6): 541-544
5. Chan SSM, Pang EPF, Chiu HFK. Validity of best-estimate methodology for assessing psychosocial risk factors and making psychiatric diagnosis among suicide attempters. The Hong Kong Journal of Psychiatry 2007;17(2): 55-63