Scientific Staff Profiles

This page allows you to read information about people engaged in research at CAMH. You can search for researchers using the name or keyword search engine below.

Dr. Ray Blanchard Law and Mental Health Program Centre for Addiction and Mental Health 250 College Street Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R8 (416) 535-8501 ext. 6228 ray_blanchard@camh.net Dr. Ray Blanchard is a Senior Scientist in the Clinical Research Department and Head of Clinical Sexology Services with the Law and Mental Health Program. He is a Professor of Psychiatry with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Blanchard is Head of the Paraphilias Subworkgroup of the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group for the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Search again?
Areas of Research Dr. Blanchard’s main research interests are gender identity disorders, sexual orientation, sexual offending and phallometric diagnosis. His studies on the clinical management of gender identity disorders have shown that the psychosocial adjustment of transsexuals improves before surgery, as patients move into the cross-gender role, and that it improves further after surgery. Dr. Blanchard’s work on paraphilias, which covers a wide variety of atypical sexual interests, has shown that pedophiles have lower mean IQ’s and higher rates of left-handedness than other groups of sexology patients. These findings suggest that biological factors play a role, and these and other characteristics of pedophilia may reflect a defect associated with neurodevelopment during prenatal life or early childhood. Other areas of study include the clinical management of gender identity disorders and the origins of sexual orientation. Findings on over 10,000 males have shown that homosexuality is predicted by higher numbers of older brothers, but not higher numbers of other siblings.
Publications Blanchard, R. Review and theory of handedness, birth order, and homosexuality in men. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition. 2008;13,51–70.   Blanchard, R. Deconstructing the feminine essence narrative. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2008;37, 434–438.   Blanchard, R., Kolla, N. J., Cantor, J. M., Klassen, P. E., Dickey, R., Kuban, M. E., & Blak, T. IQ, handedness, and pedophilia in adult male patients stratified by referral source. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. 2007;19, 285–309.   Blanchard R, Barbaree HE. The strength of sexual arousal as a function of the age of the sex offender: Comparisons among pedophiles, hebephiles, and teleiophiles. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. 2005;17, 441–456. Blanchard R. Quantitative and theoretical analyses of the relation between older brothers and homosexuality in men. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 2004; 230, 173–187. Blanchard R, Klassen P, Dickey R, Kuban ME, Blak T. Sensitivity and specificity of the phallometric test for pedophilia in nonadmitting sex offenders. Psychological Assessment. 2001;13, 118–126. Blanchard R, Collins PI. Men with sexual interest in transvestites, transsexuals, and she-males. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 1993;181, 570–575. Blanchard R. Clinical observations and systematic studies of autogynephilia. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. 1991;17, 235–251. Blanchard R, Hucker SJ.  Age, transvestism, bondage, and concurrent paraphilic activities in 117 fatal cases of autoerotic asphyxia. British Journal of Psychiatry. 1991;159, 371–377.
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