Dr. Stephanie Ameis said Not Today

As Associate Director of CAMH's Cundill Centre for Child and Youth Depression, Dr. Stephanie Ameis is passionate about providing better mental health care to young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

“Many of the teens and young adults that I see struggle with depression, psychosis, suicidal thinking and problems with functioning in everyday life. Our work can increase awareness, access to treatment and improve outcomes,” she says. 

Stephanie discovered her passion for child and youth psychiatry during her residency training in psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

She was struck by the opportunity to work with families (caregivers and children) to help at a critical time during development to improve long-term outcomes by making things better for kids in the moment and as they grow up.

“When you work with children, you can often make a change that can have a lifelong impact,” she says. “Roughly 75 per cent of mental health disorders onset by early adulthood and half by the teenage years, so once people grow up they may have suffered for many years and it can be more difficult to experience full recovery.”

Stephanie’s clinical work at CAMH focuses on providing mental health care to children, youth and young adults with ASD.

“I am often providing care for co-occurring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and anxiety disorders in children with ASD. Many of the teens and young adults that I see struggle with depression, psychosis and suicidal thinking and significant problems with functioning in everyday life,” she says.

Stephanie explains how an ongoing clinical experience with a current patient continues to inspire her research.

A young man she’s been providing mental health care to in her clinic had to leave university because symptoms of depression interfered with his academic functioning and different medications typically used to treat depression have not been helpful. 

“The need for repeated hospitalizations due to suicidal thinking and safety concerns have interfered with the ability to return to school or work. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a solid research foundation in this area to help guide what the best evidence for care is to help individuals who have ASD as well as depression and suicidality. We do know that these issues occur more frequently than in the general population, and teens and young adults are at particular risk,” she says.

Stephanie’s research at CAMH involves brain imaging to look at mechanisms of illness in individuals with ASD, with a particular interest in understanding factors that contribute to symptoms of depression and poor daily functioning.

Through her work as the Associate Director of the Cundill Centre for Child and Youth Depression, Stephanie hopes to increase awareness regarding the prevalence of depression and risk of suicidal thinking in ASD, learn more about how depression affects young people with ASD and how and whether our current treatments work.

Also, in collaboration with CAMH’s Temerty Centre for Therapeutic Brain Intervention, Stephanie is embarking on a new clinical trial looking at whether Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), an approved treatment for depression in adults, can improve depression and suicidal thinking in teens and young adults with ASD where there’s no proven treatment available.

“We want to see if rTMS treatment will work the same way in young people with ASD as it does in people with depression without ASD,” she says.

Another component of Stephanie’s work at CAMH is research implementation and translation. This includes writing guidelines and translating findings to provide frontline health-care workers with the tools they need to provide the best care. It also involves providing the broader community with information to improve awareness and reduce stigma related to mental health, particularly focused on depression in youth and the overlap with ASD.

“I hope to empower and educate frontline clinicians on the impact of co-occurring mental health problems in teens and young adults with ASD,” she says. “I also hope the work I do can help improve mental health, outcomes, and daily functioning for individuals with ASD.”

Stephanie thinks CAMH can make an important impact in suicide research and prevention.

“Our world-class scientists are engaged in research into brain mechanisms driving suicidality, new treatment options and changing our health care systems to better support individuals with mental health diagnoses,” she says. “CAMH has become a beacon of hope for our community and our research is poised to make a huge difference for individuals suffering with a variety of mental health diagnoses who are at risk of suicide.”