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Diagnostics are frustratingly imprecise — perhaps not surprising given the complexity of the brain.

Dr. Zul Merali, the president and CEO of The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research, says it is telling that death rates from mental illness, usually in the form of suicide, have not retreated at all during the past few decades while medical researchers have substantially reduced the rate of fatalities from heart disease, many cancers, AIDS and strokes. Merali points out the number of suicides in Canada, 4,000 a year, is equivalent to two plane crashes every month with no survivors.

The most vulnerable category is men between 45 and 55 years of age, exactly Antoine Paquin’s cohort.

The larger impediment to gaining insight into people’s brains may well be budgetary. “Less than five per cent of medical research money is dedicated to mental health,” Merali says.

Mental health research is probing some promising areas involving detailed brain scans that allow for a more careful calibration of drugs for particular types of mental illness.

Paquin’s tale is disturbing as well for what it shows about the prevalence of disorders of the brain.

At least seven of the more than 40 individuals interviewed for this feature suffered mental illness. These included colleagues of Paquin, close relatives, friends. During our lifetimes, 20 per cent to 30 per cent of us will experience a serious mental disorder, according to Dr. David Atwood, a clinical director at the Royal Ottawa.

Mental afflictions come in many variants, from depression and bipolar disorder to obsessive compulsive and attention deficit disorders. But whatever its form, the mental illness is invidious. If left unchecked, it stealthily suffocates or misdirects normal thought. Eventually it develops into a form impossible to hide as happened with Paquin.

The latter stages of mental illness are filled with risks. The crises come more frequently, the suicide threats more real each time. Family members, friends, loved ones can never know which clue or warning sign is the definitive one. It can take weeks to determine whether conventional anti-depressants and other drugs are being effective — and much can happen in this period.

jbagnall@postmedia.com

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An earlier version of this story contained an erroneous reference to a sister of Antoine Paquin. This story has been updated.