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While the MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency program provides a rigorous training environment, we make sure our residents have time to relax and explore our historic city. Click here to find out what our residents and faculty enjoy most about living in Boston.
Click here for the complete set of MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency videos.
Ensuring people with mental health issues receive proper support and treatment is not just an American problem, it is an international problem. The Global Psychiatry Program at MGH uses a bidirectional, culturally sensitive approach to build capacity, conduct research, and provide technical assistance to reduce the tremendous burden that psychiatric-related and neurological diseases present worldwide. Our residents have the opportunity to work within the Global Psychiatry program to achieve these goals. Click here to watch a video overview the Global Psychiatry Program at MGH/McLean. Or visit their website here.
Remember to check back in next week for the latest video installment. If you prefer not to wait, click here for the complete set of MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency videos.
The MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency's first priority is to ensure our graduates are excellent clinicians trained in a variety treatment of modalities. As such, we offer residents the opportunity to receive additional instruction in psychodynamic psychotherapy through the Program in Psychodynamics or PiP. Click here to find out more about the PiP Program.
Remember to check back in next week for the latest video installment. If you prefer not to wait, click here for the complete set of MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency videos.
Working collaboratively with MGH community health centers and community health improvement activities, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, and several independent community mental health and health centers, the MGH Division of Public and Community Psychiatry harnesses the depth and breadth of resources at MGH and in the community to provide excellence in clinical care, teaching, and research for underserved and vulnerable populations with serious mental illness. The MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency's Public and Community Psychiatry Program teaches residents to apply patient-centered, recovery-oriented, and strength-based treatment approaches to healthcare service delivery within the various inter-disciplinary settings. Click here to watch the overview video of the Public and Community Psychiatry Program.
Remember to check back in next Tuesday for the latest video installment. If you prefer not to wait, click here for the complete set of MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency videos.
There are just 8,300 practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists in the US to serve over 15 million children and adolescents in need of the special expertise of a child and adolescent psychiatrist (AACAP, 2012). Recognizing this critical need, MGH/McLean a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry track. Click here to watch the overview video of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program.
Remember to check back in next Tuesday for the latest video installment. If you prefer not to wait, click here for the complete set of MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency videos. 
While all residents that attend MGH/McLean receive stellar clinical training, we also strive to foster our residents' research interests. Whether they are interested in clinical, translational, or basic research, there is a diverse set of labs to meet their interests. This installment of our weekly video series outlines the wealth of resources available to aspiring researchers at MGH and McLean. Click here to watch the Research During Residency video.
Remember to check back in next Tuesday for the latest video installment. If you prefer not to wait, click here for the complete set of MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency videos.
MGH/McLean strives to create clinicians who are capable of treating any patient presentation. The third video in our nine part series explores the varied clinical rotations that residents experience while training here. Click on the picture above to watch the video.
Remember to check back in next Tuesday for the latest video installment. If you prefer not to wait, click here for the complete set of MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency videos.
While informative, it is difficult for any program's website does not give you a good feel for the culture of the program. That's why we created the second video in our nine part series "It's the People." This video illustrates the culture of both the residents and faculty here at MGH/McLean. Click on the picture above to watch view the video.
Remember to check back in next Tuesday for the latest video installment. If you prefer not to wait, click here for the complete set of MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency videos.
Here at MGH/McLean, we understand that perusing the wealth of information listed on our website can be somewhat overwhelming and even tiresome at times. Well fear no more, we have created 9 new videos to provide an overview of the program's many components. Each video will be released here over the coming weeks, beginning with a warm welcome from our program directors and faculty (featured above).
Remember to check back every Tuesday to view the latest video release! If you just can't wait, click here to view all of the new MGH/McLean Psychiatry Residency Program videos.
We are excited to announce a brand new program for residents interested in medical education – The Clinician Educator Program, or CEP.
The mission of this program is to prepare residents for careers as clinician educators by offering additional training and mentorship in this area, thus helping residents develop advanced teaching skills, and also pursue academic scholarship in the field of medical education.
Click here for a more detailed description of the program components and instructions for how to apply. Feel free to contact the CEP Co-Directors, Heather Vestal, M.D., M.H.S., and Joseph Stoklosa, M.D., with any questions.
In their Annual “America’s Best Hospitals” list, U.S. News & World Report MGH was ranked as the top hospital for psychiatry in the U.S., a distinction it has earned 17 times in the last 19 years. McLean was ranked as the top freestanding psychiatric hospital in the country , a distinction it has held for 18 years, and fourth overall. For the complete list please see the U.S. News & World Report website here.
June of every year is a significant time for PGY4 residents, and not just because it brings warmer weather. June is the time when PGY4 residents give their Senior Talk, a brief presentation what each resident has learned during their residency before the start their post residency careers. The subject of each talk varies, from an exploration of how shame affects both the patient and the psychiatrist to how creating a genetically modified mouse can help further our understanding of eating disorders. For a complete list of the speakers and their topics, please refer to the bottom of the article.
Additionally, each June the MGH/McLean recognizes some of our residents for their outstanding work in the clinic as well as in the lab. Please see below for the full list of award recipients.
Joan Camprodon, MD, MPH, PhD (Class of 2012), demonstrates the use of TMS on Amanda Arulpragasam, MGH Research Assistant
For patients suffering from depression, the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry now offers another treatment option – a new clinic based in Charlestown that uses transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The clinic is part of a broader effort that includes a research enterprise program, both led by Joan Camprodon, MD, MPH, PhD, (Class of 2012) director of the Laboratory for Neuropsychiatry and Neuromodulation at Mass General. Dr. Camprodon’s team aims to understand how the brain’s structure and function affect disease and how interventions such as TMS can change the mechanisms that contribute to disease.
During a TMS procedure, focused magnetic impulses are directed to the brain. The electrical currents produced stimulate nerve cells involved in mood regulation that may be underactive in diseases such as depression. By restoring the equilibrium, TMS helps reset this imbalance of chemicals. from a diseased brain to a healthy one.
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A meta-analysis of studies that investigated measures designed to improve health professionals’ interactions with patients confirms that such efforts can produce health effects just as beneficial as taking a daily aspirin to prevent heart attack. In contrast to previous such reviews, the current report from the Empathy and Relational Science Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) only included randomized, controlled trials with more reliable results than those included in earlier studies. While it has long been believed that a good patient-clinician relationship can improve health outcomes, objective evidence to support that belief has been hard to come by.
“Although the effect we found was small, this is the first analysis of the combined results of previous studies to show that relationship factors really do make a difference in patients’ health outcomes,” says Helen Riess, MD, (pictured above) Director of the Empathy and Relational Science Program in the MGH Department of Psychiatry, senior author of the report in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.
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Oligodendrocytes (green) wrap electrical insulation called myelin around axons (purple). Image courtesy of Alan Hoofring, Medical Arts Design Section, NIH.
Schizophrenia is one of the most disabling of all psychiatric illnesses. Sadly, it affects is about 1% of the global population and often strikes early in life.
Many studies have looked into causes and potential interventions, and it has been long known that genetic factors play a role in determining the risk of developing schizophrenia. However, recent work has shown that there no single gene or small number of genes explains much of the risk for illness. Instead, groups of genes interact to create the illness.
In a new paper published in PLOS ONE (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089441), MGH/McLean Adult Psychiatry Residency Program faculty Bruce M. Cohen, MD, PhD, Dost Ongur, MD, PhD (Class of 2004), and Jordan W. Smoller, MD, ScD, report promising evidence on what one of those important groups of genes may be.
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Sixteen new residents are gracing the halls of MGH and McLean Hospital. They are excited to begin their journey from medical student to independent clinician with the expert guidance of our faculty and senior residents.
Get to know the Current Residents in the entire MGH/McLean program. A few of our new residents are also engaged in research. Learn about the residents in our Research Concentration Program.
In June, 2013, some of our senior residents were honored for their outstanding work:
Padihershef, originally a stonecutter from the Necropolis in Thebes, now resides in the Bulfinch Ether Dome at MGH. In June, 2013, he underwent some protective refurbishing by professional conservators. The process, viewable by the public, corrected salt deposits on his face and wardrobe inaccuracies. MGH received the mummy as a gift from the city of Boston in 1823. The mummy will now remain on display in a custom-made, climate-controlled case.
Read the full Boston Globe article here.
The December 12th event featured talks from leaders in psychiatry and neuroscience research, including a keynote presentation from Steve Hyman, former head of the National Institute for Mental Health, and currently Director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT).
A poster session featured work from current RCP residents and allow faculty, residents, and visiting applicants to share their thoughts and experience with the wide ranging possibilities for research in the Boston neuroscience and psychiatric communities.
On November 1, Felicia Smith stepped into her new role as Program Director for the Adult Psychiatry Residency Program.
Felicia, a 2004 graduate of the MGH/McLean residency program, currently serves as Associate Director of the Division of Psychiatry and Medicine and the MGH Psychosomatic Fellowship. She previously performed the role of Associate Residency Training Director for the residency from 2004 to 2007, and became the Director of the Acute Psychiatry Service in 2008. Dr. Smith will continue as the Associate Director of the Division of Psychiatry and Medicine, in addition to fulfilling her new duties with the residency.
Felicia’s appointment, which was announced on October 4, comes as no surprise to many in the residency program. Says MGH Chief of Psychiatry Jerry Rosenbaum, “Felicia is an ideal person to take the residency helm going forward. We could not have been happier to learn that she was enthusiastic about accepting the position.” In a statement to the residency community, McLean Hospital President Scott Rauch also expressed his excitement about the recent announcement. “Felicia is an expert clinician, a master teacher, a respected and admired colleague and leader, and will be a terrific training director.”
Over the past month, Felicia has been working closely with the outgoing Director of Residency Training, Kathy Sanders, who has accepted an appointment as Deputy Commissioner of Mental Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As Felicia takes on this new challenge, please join us in extending a warm welcome and wishing her luck as our new Director of Residency Training!
Mass General was ranked the #1 hospital in the nation, according to the annual U.S. News & World Report “America’s Best Hospitals” list released Tuesday, a first for the hospital in the 22-year history of the survey. McLean Hospital received its highest ranking since 1994, placing second among all psychiatric services nationwide. McLean also continues to be ranked as the nation’s top free-standing psychiatric hospital—a distinction it has held for more than a decade. Joining McLean at the top of this year’s list are John’s Hopkins at number one and MassGeneral at number three.
“Each year we have been both honored and humbled to be recognized among the nation’s highest achieving hospitals, and this year it is especially gratifying to be ranked number one,” said Peter L. Slavin, MD, MGH president.
In Spring 2011, the residency program was awarded an Institutional Research Education Grant (R25) from the National Institute for Mental Health. Under the leadership of Maurizio Fava MD and Shelly Greenfield MD, MPH and with support from over fifty junior and senior research faculty across our two campuses, this five-year, $250K education grant is designed to foster research training and mentorship for all residents in our program. In addition, the grant allows the residency to further develop the Research Concentration Program, a program established in 2007 to optimize clinical and research training for residents with substantial research experience who plan to embark on psychiatric research careers. John Denninger, MD, PhD, and Dost Ongur, MD, PhD will serve as co-director of the RCP, with recent graduate Justin Baker MD, PhD, serving as Associate Director.
Pictured, from left: John Denninger, Co-Director of the RCP; Shelly Greenfield, co-PI; Maurizio Fava, co-PI; Kathy Sanders, Training Director; Justin Baker, Associate Director of the RCP; Joy Littlefield.