Dr. Christine Wickens is an Independent Scientist with the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She is appointed as an Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH) at the University of Toronto, and is currently serving as Director of the Master of Science in Community Health degree program in Addiction and Mental Health at DLSPH. She also holds appointments as Associate Professor in the University of Toronto’s Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation.
Dr. Wickens has a background in the areas of social, personality and health psychology. Her research focuses on the experience of stress and the interplay of relevant variables, including personality, social and environmental factors, and mental illness, including addictions. Dr. Wickens has primarily applied her research interests to the study of roadway safety, including collision risk, alcohol- and drug-impaired driving, driver anger and aggression, street racing, and mental health and driving. Related areas of interest include the evaluation of remedial programming for alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers, and the public health implications of alcohol and drug policy and roadway legislation. Her research in roadway safety has included population-level surveying, qualitative interviewing, content analysis of archival data, in situ quasi-experimentation, and driver simulation in clinical trials with drug administration. Dr. Wickens has been elected to the Board of Directors of both the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals and the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety.
Dr. Wickens’ related interests in injury prevention have led her to explore risk factors and correlates of traumatic brain injury (TBI), as well as experience of the healthcare system at time of injury. Dr. Wickens has also applied her study of stress to academic settings, examining the psychological impact of university labour strikes on affected students and exploring facilitators and barriers to accessing mental healthcare among medical school students. She has also explored risk factors and mental health correlates of social media use.