DIRECTOR

Dr. Ellenbogen completed his undergraduate studies in Psychology and a M.Sc. degree in Psychiatry at McGill University, and then his doctoral studies at Concordia University. After completing his doctoral clinical psychology internship at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health in Toronto, he returned to Montreal as postdoctoral fellow at the Université de Montréal (Department of Psychology) and took up a Canada Research Chair position at the Centre for Research in Human Development (Department of Psychology) at Concordia University in 2004. He is currently full professor at Concordia University and director of the Centre for Research in Human Development. He was the chief editor of the journal Anxiety, Stress, & Coping: An international Journal from 2013-2019.

 

Dr. Ellenbogen’s research focuses on risk factors associated with the development of affective disorders and other forms of psychopathology, using a multidisciplinary approach aimed at understanding the complex interactions between biological and psychosocial factors during development. Key areas of interest include the study of stressful life events, hormones (i.e. hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress response), oxytocin (a peptide important in social behaviour), and cognitive-emotional mechanisms of coping or self-regulation. Current projects include a longitudinal high-risk study of the offspring of parents with bipolar disorder, studies of intranasal oxytocin, a randomized controlled trial in persons with major depressive disorder, a prevention program for at-risk children, and studies of attention retraining and its effects on stress reactivity and interpersonal functioning (see the section on research for more information). Dr. Ellenbogen and his team’s research has been published in top-tier journals (impact factor ≥ 5) in psychology and psychiatry/neuroscience, such as Frontiers of Neuroendocrinology, Development and Psychopathology, Psychological Medicine, Psychoneuroendocrinology, Neuropsychopharmacology, and Archives of General Psychiatry, and his research program has been extensively funded by grants from federal and provincial funding agencies in Canada, as well as a US foundation. In addition to the Canada Research Chair (2004-2014), Dr. Ellenbogen received a Canadian Institutes of Health Research postdoctoral fellowship and an “independent investigator award” from the Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation (formerly NARSAD).