Quick Facts
Biography
Romina Mizrahi is an Argentine-Canadian Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and is a Head of the Focus on Youth Psychosis Prevention Clinic of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Early and personal life
Romina Mizrahi had obtained her M.D. degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1998 and in 2007 got her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. In 2008 she and her husband had moved to Canada and had two little girls which are three and nine months respectively.
Career
Dr. Mizrahi is specializing in MRI, PET, phenomenology and pathophysiology and is an active seeker for the cure of schizophrenia. She had received numerous funds from the National Institute of Mental Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Ontario Mental Health Foundation with which she was able to develop a new radioligand F-18. This advancement shed the light for her to continue research with the Alzheimer Society of Canada and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation to test it on humans.
2015
From 2015 to 2018 Romina Mizrahi had worked along with Tomas Paus and studied more than 1,600 boys from Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Ireland. The study looked into brain scans, cannabis history and genetic schizophrenia of the patients and was proven that there is cause-and-effect relationship between cannabis and brain changes.
In 2015 she led a research along with Sinthu Suntharalingam at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario on teenagers who used marijuana and proved that because it uses endocannabinoid system, it shouldn't be used for people under the age of 25 due to risk of memory loss, eruption of symptoms of schizophrenia and psychosis and even permanent brain damage.
2016
In June 2016 she and Cory Gerritsen had studied cannabis' ingredients; cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol and proved that the latter causes psychosis in adolescents. On November of the same year Dr. Mizrahi worked with Dr. Bill MacEwan on a case of a 21-year oldwho killed a 13-year old tween while being influenced by cannabis.
2017
In January 2017 Mizrahi had studied Canadian immigrants for the symptoms of schizophrenia which was caused by dopamine and established a possible link between migration and psychosis. In May of the same year she had partnered with Diane Kelsall who was a chief editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal to push for a stricter guidelines in the Cannabis Act, which were approved later on by the Canadian Minister of Health Jane Philpott.
2018
In May 2018, in an interview with Leafly, she told the site that
Cannabis could be a trigger of an underlying condition.
and that
There is a proven link between cannabis and psychotic experience, [but] who will experience those symptoms or when [remains unclear].
In July 2018 Romina Mizrahi had suggested that cortisol, the main stress hormone, is responsible for stress regulatory system failures with schizophrenic patients by studying their striatum.
In October 2018 Dr. Mizrahi partnered with Randi Schuster of Massachusetts General Hospital and published their work on cannabis in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Works
- 2018 - Molecular imaging studies in youth with psychosis and psychosis risk with Dr Romina Mizrahi