Saturday, Oct. 21
14:30 – 16:30 (2 hrs)
Meeting Room: Junior Ballroom C (3rd floor – North Tower)
Peter Giacobbe*, MD MSc FRCPC; Peter Giacobbe, MD MSc FRCPC; Amer Burhan, MD FRCPC; Robyn Waxman, MD FRCPC; Joshua Rosenblat, MD FRCPC

CanMEDS Roles:

1. Medical Expert
2. Health Advocate
3. Scholar

At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Review neurophysiological principles of brain stimulation as applied to the treatment of psychiatric disorders; 2) Increase knowledge of the rationale and evidence for electroconvulsive therapy, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, and ketamine in the treatment of psychiatric disorders; and 3) Appreciate the key role of postgraduate medical education in continued development of interventional psychiatry.

The last two decades have seen dramatic growth in the application of procedurally based interventions for treating refractory psychiatric conditions, leading to interest in developing the foundations for the subspecialty of “interventional psychiatry.” However, there is concern that the expansion rate of knowledge in this field may be outpacing the ability of postgraduate curricula to provide sufficient exposure to and teaching and supervision in these treatments. The paucity of adequately trained practitioners in interventional psychiatry in this country further exacerbates inequities in the ability of eligible patients to access and benefit from these approaches.

It is imperative that innovations in pedagogical approaches are needed to increase the current low rates of competency in the delivery of these treatments and can facilitate the more rapid dissemination of interventional psychiatry approaches and neurotechnologies, such as electroconvulsive therapy, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, intravenous ketamine, intranasal esketamine, deep brain stimulation, and focused ultrasound.

This course will provide members in training with an overview of this area. Attendees will receive both didactic teaching in the rationale, known clinical therapeutic effects and side-effects of a wide variety of interventional psychiatry approaches, and a guided hands-on experience in the mode of delivery of these techniques from recognized experts in the area.

References:

1. Giacobbe P, Ng E, Blumberger DM, et al. Interventional psychiatry: an idea whose time has come? Can J Psychiatry 2021;66:316–318.
2. Nikayin S, Taylor JJ, Ostroff RB. Advanced training in interventional psychiatry. J Neurol Sci 2022;434:120093.