Fabrice Jollant, M.D., Ph.D., has been an assistant professor and psychiatrist at the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier (France) and a guest research associate at the Institute of Psychiatry of London. In September 2010, he joined the McGill Group for Suicide Studies (MGSS) at the Douglas Institute.

His research focuses primarily on the cognitive and cerebral bases of vulnerability to suicide. This involves the in vivo measurement of processes that could indicate specific stress sensitivity factors. For this, Fabrice Jollant uses neuropsychology and functional neuroimaging. In this way, he has highlighted the fact that people with suicidal vulnerability make disadvantageous decisions compared to patients in a control group and healthy controls.

In addition, Fabrice Jollant led the first functional neuroimaging study of suicidal vulnerability, identifying several dysfunctional cerebral regions in patients with a history of suicidal behaviour. He recently proposed the first neurocognitive model of suicidal vulnerability, on which his current research is based. The general objective is to improve our understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the suicidal process. This preliminary step is crucial to defining stronger predictive markers and more effective preventive strategies. These studies are currently being done at the Douglas in collaboration with several researchers at the Institute and research groups outside the country (France, United States, United Kingdom).

Fabrice Jollant is also a psychiatrist with the Mood Disorders Program at the Douglas Institute.