About

Dr Donald Addington

Dr Donald E. Addington, MBBS, MRCPsych, FRCPC, is a psychiatrist, clinical professor, and internationally recognized contributor to schizophrenia and early psychosis care. He is based at the University of Calgary, where he is a member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education.

A career in measurement

Dr Addington trained in medicine at the University of London and completed specialist psychiatric qualifications in the United Kingdom and Canada. He joined the University of Calgary's Department of Psychiatry in the 1980s and directed an inpatient teaching unit at Foothills Medical Centre. In 1995, he and Dr Jean Addington founded Calgary's Early Psychosis Treatment Service.

From 1997 to 2008, he served as Head of the University of Calgary's Department of Psychiatry and of the Calgary Health Region's Regional Clinical Department of Psychiatry. He later served two terms as Board Chair of the Canadian Psychiatric Association. His leadership has since been recognized with national and international awards, including the CPA President's Commendation and the J.M. Cleghorn Award for Excellence and Leadership in Clinical Research.

Research and clinical impact

Dr Addington's early research helped establish the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia, now widely regarded as the international standard for assessing depression in people with schizophrenia. He has also contributed to antipsychotic-treatment research, medication adherence, early psychosis outcomes, and successive editions of the Canadian schizophrenia clinical practice guidelines.

The First Episode Psychosis Services Fidelity Scale

Dr Addington is the principal developer of the First Episode Psychosis Services Fidelity Scale (FEPS-FS). FEPS-FS assesses how closely an early psychosis program delivers evidence-based, team-based care. It covers access, assessment, medication practice, psychotherapy, family support, and coordinated team functioning.

The scale was developed through systematic evidence review, international expert consensus, and field testing across Canada and the United States. FEPS-FS has since been applied in Canada, the United States, Italy, Czechia, and Singapore. The approach now extends to a sister scale for clinical high risk services, CHRPS-FS.