Contact info

Dr Norbert Schmitz
Douglas Mental Health University Institute
FBC Building - Room F-2114
6875, LaSalle Boulevard
Montreal, QC H4H 1R3

Tel: 1-514-761-6131, ext. 3379
Fax: 1-514-888-4064
E-mail: norbert.schmitz@mcgill.ca

Research keywords

Norbert Schmitz is currently a researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and an Associate Member of the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Prior to joining McGill University in 2004, Dr Schmitz was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at Heinrich-Heine-University in Duesseldorf, Germany, and Director of the Research Unit Public Mental Health. Dr Schmitz obtained his PhD in statistics from the University of Dortmund (1995) and a second PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Heinrich-Heine-University in Duesseldorf, Germany (2002). Dr Schmitz currently holds a salary award from the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (Chercheur-boursier Senior, 2008).

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The research of Dr Schmitz has added to our understanding of the role of psychological and lifestyle/behavioral factors that contribute to poor functioning and reduced health related quality of life in people with diabetes and other chronic conditions. A recent focus has been on designing and conducting longitudinal community studies as well as on risk factor analysis.

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Norbert Schmitz's research interests are in the areas of epidemiology and biostatistics, including measurement methodology, outcome assessment, quality of life research, interaction of physical and mental illness, and the evaluation of risk factors for psychiatric-somatic co-morbidity.

Current projects:

Diabetes-Depression-Disability. The objectives of this CIHR funded prospective community study are a) to identify the role of depression in the development of disability (physical functioning, social functioning, quality of life) in diabetes and b) to identify potential interactions between depression and disease severity/self-care behaviours/lifestyle behaviours/social support that are associated with increased functional disability. A random community sample of 2,000 subjects with diabetes in Quebec was recruited and interviewed ( click here for more information).

Obesity-Depression. The aim of this study (CIHR funded) is to evaluate the longitudinal relationship between obesity and depression in a community sample. The study explores the nature of this relationship (e.g., onset of depression for people with baseline obesity, onset of obesity for people with baseline depression), making use of the framework provided by the moderator/mediator distinction in a longitudinal sample.

Interaction of risk factors for psychiatric-somatic co-morbidity. This project focuses on the development and application of statistical methods for the analysis of risk factors and their interaction in co-morbidity research (e.g., latent class models, classification trees).