Dr. Roberto Sassi has been appointed as Head of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) in the University of British Columbia Department of Psychiatry. This appointment will be in conjunction with Dr. Sassi’s new position as Psychiatrist-in-Chief at B.C. Children’s Hospital (BCCH).
Dr. Sassi was previously at McMaster University where he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. He also served as Medical Director, Ambulatory Services, for the Child and Youth Mental Health Program at McMaster Children’s Hospital, and was an attending psychiatrist for the Mood Disorders Outpatient Program at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.
Dr. Sassi’s clinical interests include mood disorders in children and adolescents, with a specific focus on the understanding of neurobiological mechanisms of mood disorders and possible early interventions in these populations. His research interests also include the effects of physical activity in patients struggling with mood disorders, the multigenerational transmission of risk for psychopathology and the interplay of genetic and environmental factors, and implementing measurement-based care in child and youth mental health. He has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications to date, including a recent paper in collaboration with colleagues in the Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression (CAN-BIND).
Dr. Sassi has provided clinical and research supervision to a long list of students and trainees, as well as extensive didactic instruction at McMaster, for which he has received a number of teaching awards and honours.