Top Geriatric Psychiatrist Returns to Canada to Redefine Geriatric Mental Health

Renowned geriatric psychiatrist Dr. Benoit Mulsant -who has returned to Canada as the new Director of the Geriatric Mental Health Program at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) - is calling for a re-examination of how we are treating the mental health of millions of older Canadians. Pointing to the results of a new study he co-authored in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Dr. Mulsant wants health care providers to change their approach to the treatment of major depression in old age, among other far-reaching practices.

Older persons are the fastest-growing group of Canadians facing mental health problems, with a growing number of us eventually succumbing to one or more form of mental illness. “Yet geriatric mental health is one of the most under-researched and misunderstood areas of all health care. It’s where children’s mental health was 20 years ago. We plan to change that at CAMH,” said Dr. Mulsant, who recently returned from a term as Medical Director at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to lead Ontario’s largest Geriatric Mental Health Program at CAMH. Dr. Mulsant’s Canadian colleague in Pittsburgh — the leading geriatric psychopharmacologist Dr. Bruce Pollock — has also returned and joined the CAMH team as Senior Scientist.

Dr. Mulsant’s new NEJM study deals with geriatric depression, a disease that afflicts up to 11 per cent of older people. Depression is less likely to be diagnosed or treated properly in seniors than in adults, and more likely to result in negative consequences, including death from suicide and comorbid physical illness. Dr. Mulsant’s study shows that people age 70 and older with major depression were much less likely to relapse if they received up to two years of maintenance therapy rather than the usually recommended six to 12 months.

“This shows geriatric health care providers that a new perspective is needed,” said Dr. Mulsant. “Considering that 50 to 90 per cent of older people with depression are likely to relapse if not treated appropriately, these findings are a call to the health care establishment to employ more effective strategies to treat older populations.”

Dr. Mulsant has brought a passionate determination to advance the field of geriatric mental health to Ontario, along with a clear vision of how it can be done. The first phase of CAMH’s redevelopment of its Toronto facilities on Queen Street West will include a new geriatric outpatient clinic and two units to treat geriatric mental health patients in a modernized setting filled with natural light and access to outdoor space, in a facility that helps staff integrate with clients, and clients transition back into the community into appropriate long-term care.

“We are very excited to have Dr. Mulsant here at CAMH,” said Dr. Paul Garfinkel, President and CEO, CAMH. “Geriatric mental health is a growing field and will become increasingly important to Canadians in the near future – we look forward to seeing Dr. Mulsant’s inspiring vision come to fruition.”

Research will be an important focus for Drs. Mulsant and Pollock at CAMH. “Right now, many of the drugs that we prescribe to seniors have been tested in younger people. The PET scans being done to understand brain mechanisms underlying mental illness are being done in younger people. We need to adjust our research focus and study seniors more. There is far too much we still don’t know,” said Dr. Mulsant. Dr. Mulsant has begun plans to work closely with CAMH’s Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Centre using PET methodology to study mental health disorders in older populations.

Dr. Mulsant’s team has also been in touch with Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, which, recognizing the need for the revitalization of this field of treatment and study, recently awarded the CAMH Geriatric Mental Health Program a $375,000 grant to conduct a needs assessment to determine what education and training is needed in Ontario’s long term care homes to extend the best geriatric mental health care possible.

Listed among the top geriatric psychiatrists in Best Doctors in America for over ten years running, CAMH is pleased to welcome Dr. Benoit Mulsant and his innovative approach to geriatric mental health to Ontario.

For more information or to schedule an interview with Dr. Benoit Mulsant, contact: Michael Torres, Media Relations Coordinator, CAMH at (416) 595-6015.

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The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is a Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization Collaborating Centreand a teaching hospital fully affiliated with the University of Toronto