Latest Episodes
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers an introduction to consultation-liaison psychiatry with Dr. Raed Hawa and Dr. Alan Wai, both from the University of Toronto.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. In this episode, we discuss the practice of involuntary hospitalization (also referred to as involuntary commitment or certification) with two special guests and fellow podcast creators — Jesse Mangan and Dr. Jim McQuaid. Their podcast, Committable, focuses on the topic of involuntary commitment and features stories from people with lived experience as a window into complex conversations with attorneys, physicians, psychologists, and more. Jesse Mangan is the producer of Committable and someone who has experienced involuntary hospitalization. Dr. Jim McQuaid is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Framingham University.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers antipsychotic side effects with our very own expert Dr. Alex Raben, a staff psychiatrist in chronic care at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Dr. Raben graduated from medical school and completed residency at the University of Toronto. His academic interests include teaching and medical education scholarship with a particular interest in novel modalities of knowledge translation within the field of psychiatry. He is a founding member and Executive Director of PsychEd, this educational psychiatry podcast which aims to empower medical learners to seek out current knowledge from mental health experts to share with their colleagues around the world.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers an introduction to forensic psychiatry with Dr. Amina Ali, a forensic psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Ali joined the Forensic Division at CAMH in 2018. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining CAMH, Dr. Ali received her Doctor of Medicine at the American University of the Caribbean, completed her Psychiatry residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, and fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode introduces the field of metabolic psychiatry, with a focus on patients with severe mental illness and metabolic syndrome. Our guest is Dr. Cindy Calkin, an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Department of Neuroscience at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Dr. Calkin has been a pioneer in the field of metabolic and neuroendocrine disorders in patients with bipolar disorder. Her research interests include examining the effects of obesity, insulin resistance and type II diabetes on the clinical course and outcomes in bipolar disorder.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers the field of critical psychiatry with Dr. Elia Abi-Jaoude and Lucy Costa. Dr. Abi-Jaoude is a staff psychiatrist at The Hospital for Sick Children and Assistant Professor and Clinician Investigator in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada. Lucy Costa is Deputy Executive Director of the Empowerment Council, a voice for clients of mental health and addiction services primarily at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers depression in children and adolescents with Dr. Darren Courtney, a scientist with the Cundill Centre for Child and Youth Depression and the Margaret and Wallace McCain Centre for Child, Youth and Family Mental Health and a staff psychiatrist in the Youth Addictions and Concurrent Disorders Service at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. He is also an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers HIV/AIDS psychiatry with special guests from two international settings to provide complementary perspectives on HIV psychiatry: Dr. Adriana Carvalhal, HIV Psychiatrist and Staff Psychiatrist at Scarborough Health Network in Canada and Dr. Leigh van den Heuvel, Psychiatrist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers trauma and addictions with Dr Gabor Maté, a retired physician who, after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of five books published in thirty languages, including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, Dr Maté is an internationally renowned speaker highly sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. For his groundbreaking medical work and writing he has been awarded the Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian distinction, and the Civic Merit Award from his hometown, Vancouver. His fifth book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture was released on September 13, 2022.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) and mental illness as a sequel to our previous episode on MAiD with our guest experts, Dr. Sonu Gaind and Dr. Jeffrey Kirby. This episode was originated by Dr. Urvashi Prasad for her Grand Rounds.
Welcome to PsychEd — the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers the relationship between cannabis and psychotic disorders, as well as the potential impact of cannabis legalization in Canada, with our special guest Dr. Nitin Chopra. This episode was originated by Dr. Luke Fraccaro for his Grand Rounds.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers insomnia with Dr. Michael Mak, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and an Adjunct Research Professor at Western University.
Welcome to PsychEd — the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode is an introduction to the use and monitoring of lithium in bipolar disorder. Join Tingting Yan (CC4) and Dr. Alex Raben (staff psychiatrist at CAMH and lecturer at the University of Toronto) for a lively case-based discussion.
Welcome to PsychEd — the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers the “big picture” relationship between violence and severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar spectrum disorders. Our guest experts in this episode are Dr. Robert McMaster, Assistant Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and Dr. Ragy R. Girgis, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University in New York.
Welcome to PsychEd — the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers the mental status examination and makes use of practical and fictional examples to delve deeper into the skills and concepts.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. In this episode, we’ll explore a topic that we’re sure many listeners are eager to learn about: The Assessment of Major Neurocognitive Disorder, also known as dementia, with Dr. Lesley Wiesenfeld who is a Geriatric Psychiatrist and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, where she leads the Geriatric Consult Liaison Psychiatry Service. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode delves into the history of psychiatry with Dr David Castle, the inaugural Scientific Director of the Centre for Complex Interventions at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Prior to migrating to Canada in 2021, he spent 15 years as a Professor of Psychiatry at St Vincent’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. In this episode, we present a focused summary of the latest changes in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) with our guest expert — Dr. Michael First, a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University, NY. Dr. First is an internationally recognized expert on psychiatric diagnosis and assessment issues. He is the editor and co-chair of the DSM-5 text revision project (DSM-5-TR), the editorial and coding Consultant for the DSM-5, the chief technical and editorial consultant on the World Health Organization ICD-11 revision project, and was an external consultant to the NIMH Research Domain Criteria project (RDOC).
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. In this episode, we present a broad overview of antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy with our guest expert — Dr. Donald Lynam. Dr. Lynam is a clinical psychologist by training, and professor at Purdue university, where he heads the Purdue's Developmental Psychopathology, Psychopathy and Personality Lab. While there may be some disagreement in the field, Dr. Lynam and I discuss how ASPD and psychopathy are two diagnostic constructs that are attempting to outline the same psychopathology, with the main difference being the degree of severity — for this reason, we use the terms antisocial and psychopathic interchangeably.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers perinatal psychiatry with Dr. Tuong Vi Nguyen, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University and Scientist, RI-MUHC, Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program, Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers reproductive psychiatry with Dr. Tuong Vi Nguyen, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University and Scientist, RI-MUHC, Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program, Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy with Dr Emma Hapke and Dr Daniel Rosenbaum, both of whom are psychiatrists at the University Health Network in Toronto and co-founders of UHN’s Nikean Psychedelic Psychotherapy Research Centre (in addition to being lecturers in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto).
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) with Dr. Paula Ravitz, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and Senior Clinician-Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mt Sinai Hospital. Dr. Ravitz held the Morgan Firestone Psychotherapy Chair at Mount Sinai Hospital from 2011 to 2021 and is a past president of the International Society of Interpersonal Psychotherapy.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) and mental illness with our guest expert Dr. Sonu Gaind. This episode was originated by Dr. Urvashi Prasad for her Grand Rounds.
This episode covers suicide epidemiology and prevention with Dr. Juveria Zaheer, a Clinician Scientist with the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research and Education Administrator in the Gerald Sheff and Shanitha Kachan Emergency Department at CAMH in Toronto, Ontario. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods to better understand suicide and identify areas of potential improvement.
This episode covers electroconvulsive therapy with Dr. Wei-Yi Song, the Department Head of Psychiatry, Director of Mood Disorder Services, and Director of ECT Services in Victoria, BC, as well as a Clinical Professor at the University of British Columbia, and a past president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.
This episode covers Clinical High Risk for Psychosis with Dr. Thomas Raedler, psychiatrist and associate professor at the University of Calgary and one of the authors of the Canadian Treatment Guidelines for Individuals at Clinical High Risk of Psychosis.
This is the second of two episodes covering the topic of eating disorders. In this episode, we explore the treatment of eating disorders from a biopsychosocial perspective with Dr. Randy Staab, a psychiatrist at Trillium Health Partners and medical director of the eating disorders program at Credit Valley Hospital.
This is the first of two episodes covering the topic of eating disorders. In this episode, we explore the diagnosis, etiology, and symptomatology of these illnesses with Dr. Randy Staab, a psychiatrist at Trillium Health Partners and medical director of the eating disorders program at Credit Valley Hospital.
This episode covers the psychiatric aspects of chronic pain with expert guest Dr. Leon Tourian, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University and psychiatrist at the MUHC Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit.
This episode covers ketamine for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) with Dr. Sandhya Prashad, a psychiatrist and the founder and medical director of Houston Ketamine Therapeutics. She has extensive expertise using ketamine and is one of the most experienced ketamine psychiatrists in the United States, with her clinical practice focusing on TRD and incorporating transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), sometimes in conjunction with ketamine.
This episode covers the treatment of borderline personality disorder with expert guests Dr. Robert Biskin and Dr. Ronald Fraser.
This episode covers the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder with expert guests Dr. Robert Biskin and Dr. Ronald Fraser.
This episode covers psychodynamic psychotherapy with Dr. Rex Kay. Dr. Kay is a staff psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital, assistant professor and modality lead for dynamic psychotherapy at the University of Toronto, as well as a faculty member at the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis.
This episode covers anti-black racism and mental health with Dr. Kwame McKenzie. Dr. McKenzie is an international expert on the social causes of illness, suicide, and the development of effective, equitable health systems. He is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a staff psychiatrist and Director of Health Equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
This episode covers the topic of cultural psychiatry with expert guest Dr. Eric Jarvis, Staff Psychiatrist and Director of the Cultural Consultation Service and the First Episode Psychosis Program at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University.
This episode covers immigrant and refugee mental health with not one, not two but three experts in the field: Dr. Lisa Andermann, Dr. Clare Pain, and Norma Hannant.
In this episode, we begin to explore the neurobiology of the serotonin system — along with key pharmacological agents (SSRIs and classical psychedelics) that act on this system — with guest expert Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, a neuroscientist and head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London.
This episode covers nutritional psychiatry with expert guest Dr. Laura LaChance, Staff Psychiatrist and Director of Outpatient Psychiatry at St. Mary’s Hospital Centre in Montreal, Quebec and Faculty Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University.
In this episode, we explore Attachment Theory, a key foundational framework in psychiatry which concerns relationships and the ways in which infants seek proximity to caregivers in development.
This episode covers medical trainee wellness during the COVID-19 pandemic with expert guest Dr. Deanna Chaukos, Staff Psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Wellness Lead for the Psychiatry Residency program at the University of Toronto.
This episode covers Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with not one, not two, but THREE experts in the field: Dr. Melanie Penner (Developmental Pediatrician at Holland-Bloorview), Dr. Mitesh Patel (Forensic and Child Psychiatrist at CAMH) and Dr. Yona Lunsky (Psychologist at CAMH).
This episode is an introduction to the subspecialty of psychosocial oncology, focusing on 10 key content areas that you want to supplement your general psychiatric interview with. Along the way, we discuss the history of the field, contemporary controversies, and useful interviewing techniques that can help with history collection, therapeutic alliance, and formulation.
This episode covers Motivational Interviewing (MI) with Dr. Wiplove Lamba (staff psychiatrist), Dr. Anees Bahji (PGY5 resident), and Dr. Marlon Danilewitz (PGY5 resident) who we caught up with after their workshop on MI at the CPA annual conference in Quebec City. In addition to learning the basics about MI, Alex also volunteered to do a real-play with Dr. Lamba to demonstrate some MI techniques (and all in one take!).
This episode covers repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) with Dr. Jonathan Downar, a world expert and leading researcher on rTMS, and clinical fellow Dr. Jean-Phillippe Miron. In addition to learning the basics about rTMS, you will also be listening to Henry Barron’s first-hand experience with non-therapeutic rTMS treatment to help bring some of the learning principles to life.
In this episode from our EPA mini-series on clinical skills we review the Ontario Mental Health Act. Our guest expert is Kendra Naidoo, legal counsel at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto.
In this episode from our EPA mini-series on clinical skills, we comprehensively review the risk factors for self-harm and suicide and components of risk assessment.
In this episode of our miniseries on psychiatric skills, we review the core content areas of a psychiatric assessment and look at techniques to improve interviewing efficiency, accuracy, and alliance building.
In this episode, we discuss the biopsychosocial formulation — what it is and how we do it. Our guest expert is Dr. Erin Carter, an in-patient psychiatrist at St. Joseph's Healthcare Centre in Toronto, Canada.
In this episode from our EPA mini-series on clinical skills, we comprehensively review the risk factors and management of aggression in the Psychiatric Emergency context.
In this episode, we comprehensively review the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD, and explore the psychological and physiological underpinnings of trauma.
This episode covers Psychiatric Rehabilitation with guest Dr. Abraham Rudnick, who is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Dalhousie.
This episode is our fourth and final episode in our mini-series on schizophrenia. In this episode, we take an advanced look at the clinical management of schizophrenia, including a discussion of treatment-resistant schizophrenia and clozapine. Warning: this content in this episode is a little bit more advanced than usual, but also ultra interesting.
This episode covers community treatment orders (CTOs) and assertive community treatment (ACT) teams in the context of schizophrenia treatment with Dr. Arash Nakhost, a staff psychiatrist who works on the FOCUS ACT team at St. Michael’s Hospital.
This episode is part II in the treatment of schizophrenia series with our expert Dr. Albert Wong, a psychiatrist and research scientist who is an expert in schizophrenia at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and professor at the University of Toronto.
This episode covers the treatment of schizophrenia with Dr. Jason Joannou and Dr. Andrew Lustig, two inpatient staff psychiatrists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and assistant professors at the University of Toronto.
This episode covers the diagnosis and treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) with Dr. Nik Grujich, a staff psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Hospital, associate of the Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre and award-winning educator at the University of Toronto.
This episode covers the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder with Dr. Jared Peck, a Staff Psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
This episode covers the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder with Dr. Jared Peck, a Staff Psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
This episode covers treatment of bipolar disorder with Dr. Roger McIntyre, Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at University of Toronto and Head of the Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit at the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada.
This episode covers the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in depressive episodes, and a phenomenon termed "episodes with mixed features", with guest Dr. Ariel Shafro, a staff psychiatrist at Trillium Health Partners.
This episode covers the diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder (Type 1 and 2), with insights from guest Dr. Mark Sinyor, Staff Psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
This episode covers the approach to treating Major Depressive Disorder, as described by the CANMAT (Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments) Guidelines. We discuss with Dr. Sid Kennedy, the founding chair of CANMAT, the past president of International Society for Affective Disorders, as well as a staff psychiatrist and scientist at Toronto Western and St. Michael’s Hospitals in Toronto.
This episode covers the diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD), leveraging experience from Dr. Ilana Shawn, Staff Emergency and Outpatient Psychiatrist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This is a special episode in a new series — the PsychEd Book Club, a forum where we'll introduce and discuss books of interest to psychiatry learners from a variety of disciplines (inviting you to read along and discuss with us as we read!) Our book club episodes will start with a short introductory episode (like this one) sharing the book title and why we picked it — the first book we'll be covering is Anne Harrington's Mind Fixers: Psychiatry's Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness. In a few months, we plan to release an episode debriefing our thoughts on the book. If there are specific things you want us to talk about, email us at psychedpodcast@gmail.com or reach out to us on social media and we will try to include them in our debrief!