Suzanne King, Ph.D.

Full Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Psychosocial Research Division
Douglas Mental Health University Institute

Douglas Hospital Research Centre
6875 Lasalle Blvd.
Montreal, Quebec
H4H 1R3
Canada
Tel: (514) 761-6131 ext. 2353
Fax: (514) 762-3049

E-mail: suzanne.king at mcgill.ca
http://www.douglas.qc.ca/researcher/suzanne-king?locale=en

Research Areas

Research Summary

Suzanne King studies developmental psychopathology, and the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). In the past, she has used retrospective research with schizophrenia patients and controls. Currently, her work is focused on 3 prospective longitudinal studies of children who were exposed to maternal stress in utero as the result of a natural disaster: The Quebec ice storm of 1998; Iowa floods of 2008; and Queensland floods in Australia in 2011. Developmental outcomes include cognitive development (incl. IQ, language, memory, attention), physical development (incl. body composition and obesity, metabolism, brain structure, immunity, craniofacial dysmorphology, epigenetics), behavioral development (incl. internalizing, externalizing, autistic- or psychotic-like traits) and motor development (incl. balance, coordination, fine motor, visual motor integration).

Selected References

King, S., Dancause, K.N., Turcotte-Tremblay, A-M., Veru, F., & Laplante, D.P. (2012) Using Natural Disasters to Study the Effects of Prenatal Maternal Stress on Child Health and Development. Birth Defects Research Part C: Embryo Today: Reviews, 96: 273-288.

Yong-Ping, E., Laplante, D.P., Elgbeili, G., Hillerer, K.M., Brunet, A., O'Hara, M.W. & King, S. (2015). Prenatal maternal stress and toddler stress reactivity at 2½ years of age: The Iowa Flood Study.  Psychoneuroendocrinology, 56: 62-78. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.02.015.

St-Hilaire, A., Steiger, H., Liu, A., Laplante, D.P., Thaler, L., Magill, T., and King, S. (2015). A prospective study of effects of prenatal maternal stress upon later eating-disorder manifestations in affected offspring: Preliminary indications based on the Project Ice Storm cohort. International Journal of Eating Disorders. DOI: 10.1002/eat.22391

Brock, R.L., O'Hara, M.W., Hart, K.J., McCabe, J.E., Williamson, J.A., Laplante, D.P., Yu, C., King, S.  (2014). Partner support and maternal depression in the context of the Iowa Floods.  Journal of Family Psychology, 28 (6), 832-843. ttp://dx.doi.org/10.1037/fam0000027.

Walder, D., Laplante, D.P., Sousa-Pires, A., Veru, F., Brunet, A., King, S. (2014) Prenatal maternal stress predicts autism traits in 6½ year-old children: Project Ice Storm. Psychiatry Research, 219 (2), 353-360.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2014.04.034i

Braehler, C., Valiquette, L., Holowka, D., Malla, A.K., Joober, R., Ciampi, A., Pawliuk, N., & King, S., et al. (2013). Childhood Trauma and Dissociation in First Episode Schizophrenia, Chronic Schizophrenia, and Community Controls.  Psychiatry Research, 210 (1), 36-42.

Updated: May 2015
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