Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program

Administrative Assistant: Elly McEachern
Phone: 416-480-4679
Email: elly.mceachern@sunnybrook.ca

Education:

• Diploma, 1995, clinical psychology, British Psychological Society, U.K.
• PhD, 1996, clinical psychology, University of York, U.K.
• C.Psychol., 1996, British Psychological Society, 1996, U.K.
• C.Psych., 1997, Ontario Psychological Association, Canada

Appointments and Affiliations:

• Senior scientist, Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute
• Director of research, department of psychiatry, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Professor, department of psychiatry, University of Toronto

Research Focus:

• Mental health

Research Summary:

Dr. Rector is involved in randomized controlled trials on cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) approaches for depression, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and overlapping comorbidity of these conditions. Research has examined issues pertaining to efficacy of CBT and mechanisms of action.

He has also done research work on cognitive and personality vulnerability for the development of mood and anxiety disorders, focusing on:

• experimental studies of attentional biases, executive functioning and autobiographical memory;
• facial processing of emotions;
• dysfunctional beliefs and cognitive schemata;
• personality and individual differences; and
• epidemiological studies focused on early adverse developmental experiences.

Dr. Rector is also studying the integration of psychological and neurobiological approaches to mood and anxiety disorders. Studies underway include the following:

• functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) examination of neuronal changes from pretreatment to posttreatment in CBT;
• pharmacogenetics of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); and
• interrelationship between cognitive and genetic vulnerabilities in the etiology of mood and anxiety disorders.

Selected Publications:

See current publications list at PubMed.

1. Rector, N.A., Cassin, S., Richter, M., & Burroughs, E. (in press). A test of the cognitive model of obsessions: Examination of obsessive beliefs in first-degree relatives. Journal of Anxiety Disorders.
2. Rector, N.A., Antony, M.M., Laposa, J.M., Kocovski, N.L., & Swinson, R.P. (2008). Assessing content domains of repetitive though in the anxiety spectrum: Rumination and worry in nonclinical and clinically anxious samples. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 1, 352-376.
3. Kocovski, N.L., & Rector N.A. (2008). Post-event processing in social anxiety disorder: Idiosyncratic priming in the course of CBT. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 23—36.
4. Rector, N.A., Kamkar, K., & Riskind, J. (2008). Misappraisal of time perspective and suicide in the anxiety disorders: The multiplier effect of looming illusions. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 1 (1), 66-76.
5. Rector, N.A. & Szacun-Shimizu, K., & Leybman, M. (2007). Anxiety sensitivity within the anxiety disorders: Disorder-specific sensitivities and depression comorbidity. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45 (8), 1967-1975.

Related News and Stories:

• National agency recognizes scientific excellence at Sunnybrook Research Institute: Scientists score high with multimillion-dollar funding investment (Oct. 13, 2015)
• Mood disorders across our lives (SRI Magazine, 2013)
• Driving progress: National health research agency funds a dozen SRI scientists (April 25, 2014)
• Discovering Toronto's urban dread: Discussion of fears ranging from normal to abnormal (Toronto Star, October 26, 2008)
• Need a panic mechanic?: Discussions of the causes and treatment of panic disorder (Now Magazine, October 8-15, 2008)
• Breakdown: Canada's mental health crisis: Discussion of the treatment of anxiety disorders with cognitive-behavioural therapy (Globe and Mail, June 20, 2008)