Primary research areas

• Schizophrenia
• Treatment-resistant psychosis
• Aging, synapses
• Homelessness
• Substance use

About William G. Honer, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS 

• Investigator, BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute
• Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
• Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia
• Jack Bell Chair in Schizophrenia, University of British Columbia
• Honorary Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Hong Kong
• Lecturer, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University 

Dr. William Honer received his MD from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario in 1984. Following the final year of a residency in psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia, he began working as a research fellow at Columbia University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. For the next three years, he was a member of a neuropathology research group led by internationally renowned Alzheimer’s researcher Dr. Peter Davies. In 1991, Dr. Honer moved to Vancouver, and served as head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia from 2011-2018.

In 2012, he was elected to a fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Dr. Honer’s recognition from peers includes a Scientist Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Young Investigator Award in 1997 followed by the Heinz Lehmann Award in 2008 from the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology. In 2018, he received the JM Cleghorn Award for Excellence and Leadership in Clinical Research from the Canadian Psychiatric Association. 

Dr. Honer is the author of over 400 peer-reviewed publications. In addition, he has co-authored the assessment and pharmacotherapy sections of the Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines for Schizophrenia and the Treatment Response and Resistance in Psychosis working group guideline on diagnosis and terminology.

Current projects

Dr. William Honer’s translational research interests include the neurobiology and origins of illness in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders, including the overlap of mental illness, addiction and viral infection. He looks at the mechanisms of illness, brain structure and treatment response in first-episode and difficult to treat patients in order to develop new treatments. In addition, he is working with an international cohort that are looking at clozapine as a treatment for patients who don’t respond well to the antipsychotic medicines. 

His other major clinical research is a decade-plus-long study focused on people who experience homelessness or are tenants of insecure housing. People living with schizophrenia and other related disorders are often in this group. As it’s called, the Hotel Study is named for the single-room-occupancy hotels where many of the participants live.

“Broadly speaking, schizophrenia afflicts one percent of the general population,” Dr. Honer says. “In this community, it’s about 15 percent.” 

Another 25-30 per cent have other psychotic disorders, all sharing the common feature of loss of touch with one or more aspects of reality. “We’re trying to understand how impoverished living conditions affect their lives.” 

So far, the study has generated over 20 papers, and received regular inquiries from health authorities and the City of Vancouver to improve service delivery.

Recent publications