Scientist profiles G-L

Administrative Assistant: Vida Jennett
Phone: 416-480-6030
Email: vida.jennett@sunnybrook.ca

Education:

• B.Sc., 1988, astronomy and physics, University of Toronto, Canada
• MD, 1995, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, U.S.

Appointments and Affiliations:

• Associate scientist, Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute
• Head, division of youth psychiatry, department of psychiatry, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Assistant professor, department of psychiatry, U of T

Research Foci:

• Nonlinear dynamics in psychiatric illness 
• Mobile computing in mental health

Research Summary:

Dr. Kreindler’s primary research interest is the application of physics and cognitive science to psychiatry to understand better the origin of psychiatric illness. In collaboration with Charles J. Lumsden (departments of medicine and physics, U of T), he has been working on mathematically modeling mood, drawing on recent developments in nonlinear dynamics (Mainzer 1996), fractal geometry (Mandelbrot 1982), and self-organized criticality (Bak 1996;Jensen 1998) to illuminate the mechanisms that underpin mood. This approach understands mood as a dynamic process embedded in time; it is uniquely relevant to child and adolescent mood disorders as well as mood disorders across the rest of the lifespan since it approaches mood as a phenomenon.

His other research interests are the application of information technology to clinical psychiatry. He maintains an active interest in data security issues as applied to clinical practice. Ongoing projects (in collaboration with Prof. Lumsden, Dr. Anthony Levitt and others) include mental health telemetry, the clinical use of handheld computers and animated mood questionnaires.

Selected Publications:

See current publications list at PubMed.

1. Schaffer A, Kreindler D, Reis C, Levitt AJ. Use of mental health telemetry to enhance identification and predictive value of early changes during augmentation treatment for major depression. J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2013 Dec;33(6):775–81.
2. Romans SE, Kreindler D, Asllani E, Einstein G, Laredo S, Levitt A, Morgan K, Petrovic M, Toner B, Stewart DE. Mood and the menstrual cycle. Psychother Psychosom. 2013;82(1):53–60.
3. Manassis K, Mendlowitz S, Kreindler D, Lumsden C, Sharpe J, Simon MD, Woolridge N, Monga S, Adler-Nevo G. Mood assessment via animated characters: a novel instrument to evaluate feelings in young children with anxiety disorders. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2009 May;38(3):380–389. 
4. Kreindler D. Email security in clinical practice: ensuring patient confidentiality. Open Medicine. 2008; 2(2):e54–59.
5. Kreindler DM and Lumsden CJ. The effects of irregular sampling and missing data in time series analysis. Nonlinear Dynamics Psychol Life Sci. 2006 Apr; 10(2):187–214. 
6. Kreindler D, Lumsden CJ, Levitt A, Woolridge N. Portable mood mapping: the validity and reliability of analog scale displays for mood assessment via hand held computer. Psychiatry Res. 2003 Sep; 120(2):165–177.

Related News and Stories:

• Doctors at Sunnybrook Hospital are using an app to help patients with mood disorders (CTV news, 2014)
• Cell phones help teens monitor depression (The Toronto Star, Sept. 8, 2010)

Related Links:

• Centre for Mobile Computing in Mental Health
• CREST.BD (The Collaborative RESearch Team to study psychosocial issues in Bipolar Disorder)
• MAAC (Mood Assessment via Animated Characters)
• The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences