Psychiatry
The Tufts University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry is an extraordinary academic and clinical enterprise. Our clinical partners care for thousands of patients each year at several major medical centers in Massachusetts and Maine, train hundreds of medical students, residents and fellows. Our faculty is nationally and internationally renowned with over 20 full and clinical professors, principal investigators covering many areas of psychiatry, with expertise across the lifespan, medical and psychiatric illness. This same faculty publishes dozens of articles per year detailing their original research, scholarship and policy recommendations. They are the leaders of national and international psychiatric organizations who affect the future of our field.
Psychiatry is in a unique period in its long history. The complex and often fearsome illnesses for which we care are beginning to yield their secrets to careful clinical investigation, genetics and neuroimaging. New treatments – both psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacologic – are being tested in clinical trials and effectiveness studies. There is a growing and important recognition of the large illness burden of psychiatric illness in both disability and the impact on co-morbid medical illness. Our faculty and students are public citizens as well: providing care and donating their time across our city and world. From China, to Haiti, to Serbia and Tanzania, Tufts psychiatry faculty are present, bringing their expertise and compassion to a suffering world. This is a unique moment to attend medical school and to train in psychiatry. We are honored to be present for our students, trainees, field and community.
Chair:
Brent P. Forester, MD, MSc
Frances S. Arkin Chair of Psychiatry
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Paul Summergrad, M.D.
Dr. Frances S. Arkin Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry
Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine
Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Tufts Medical CenterJonathan Schindelheim, M.D.
Clinical Professor and Vice-Chairman of Education and Residency Training
Tufts University School of Medicine
Tufts Medical CenterEdward K. Silberman, M.D.
Professor and Vice-Chairman of Adult Psychiatry
Tufts University School of Medicine
Tufts Medical CenterJohn Sargent, M.D.
Professor and Vice-Chairman of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Tufts University School of Medicine
Tufts Medical Center -
Patrick Aquino, MD
Chair of Psychiatry, Lahey Clinic
Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of MedicineChitra Malur, MD
Chair of Psychiatry, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center
Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of MedicineTony Ng, MD
Chief of Psychiatry, Acadia HospitalAmy Lisser, MD
Chief of Psychiatry, Lemuel Shattuck Hospital
Assistant Clinical Professor, Tufts University School of MedicineDavid J. Wolfe, MD, MPH
Chair, Department of Psychiatry
Newton-Wellesley HospitalLinda Durst, MD
Chair of Psychiatry, Maine Medical Center
Chief Medical Officer Maine Health
Visiting Associate Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine -
In the first year, the basic science concepts necessary to understand the doctor/patient relationship and the foundations of social and behavioral medicine are presented. These courses include instruction in interviewing as well as on the human developmental life cycle and the influence of social issues on physical and mental health. Psychopathology is also introduced in the first year. During this course, patient interviews by course faculty permit first-hand knowledge of psychiatric disorders. Weekly lectures and interactive small group sessions led by faculty experts provide a basis for group discussions on psychiatric disorders.
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In the third-year, each student is required to take a six-week clerkship in psychiatry. Rotations are offered at Acadia, Baystate Medical Center, Lahey Clinic, Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, Maine Medical Center, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Tufts Medical Center, and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center. All students receive extensive exposure to general adult psychiatry through work on inpatient units, consultation-liaison, emergency and outpatient services. There are elective opportunities available in child, geriatric, forensic psychiatry, and neuropsychiatry.
There are 14 electives in psychiatry and the psychiatric subspecialties, offered by faculty from Tufts School of Medicine’s various partner teaching hospitals and clinics. In the new curriculum, these electives are now offered to fourth year students and those third year students who have completed their third year required clerkship. Electives offer additional insight into addiction medicine, child psychiatry, psychodynamic psychiatry, and criminality with a broad base of opportunities on inpatient units, outpatient settings, consultation/liaison services and in emergency rooms. Such electives allow students to both deepen their experiences in psychiatry as well as explore the possibility of a career in the field.
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Tufts School of Medicine's clinical partners offer residencies in Psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center, Maine Medical Center and St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry residencies at Tufts Medical Center and Maine Medical Center. Across all our hospitals our faculty are national and international leaders in psychiatry.
Tufts Medical Center has a fully approved ACGME program in psychiatry trains 6 residents per year. Psychiatry residents rotate through the psychiatric, medical and pediatric services at Tufts Medical Center, as well as rotations at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, the Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center of the Department of Mental Health and other community settings. In child and adolescent psychiatry our fully ACGME approved program offers both a traditional 2 year child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship and a 5 year Triple Board Program which leads to board eligibility in Pediatrics, General Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Residents in both programs rotate at Tufts Medical Center, the Walker School, Metro West Hospital and other community sites.
The psychiatry residency at Maine Medical Center is approved by the ACGME for four years of training (including a categorical PGY-1), with five residents in each year. Clinical experiences are at Maine Medical Center, with significant inpatient assignments also at nearby Spring Harbor Hospital. Residents gain outpatient experience in the Department’s outpatient clinic, as well as through Portland’s VA clinic.
Baystate Medical Center has a residency in Adult Psychiatry with 4 residents/year. At all our sites, residents are actively involved in teaching Tufts medical students during their 3rd year clerkship in Psychiatry and have been cited by the students for excellence in teaching.
Across our academic department we train over 100 adult and child psychiatry residents each year. Residents in all programs learn evidence based care of psychiatric patients, develop expertise in patients with medical and psychiatric illness, neuropsychiatry, and numerous treatment strategies from expert faculty and clinicians including psychotherapies, psychopharmacology and community and institutional based treatments. Our faculty are national and international leaders in psychiatry.
Many of our residents have achieved awards, been selected for national fellowships to deliver posters and talks at major national meetings. Residents pursue research training during the course of their training. Many of the graduates from Tufts residencies have gone on to hold major positions in the field at the local and national level including Chairs of medical school departments of psychiatry, chiefs of major clinical services at academic medical centers and leadership positions in academic and professional organizations.
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The department is home to numerous funded researchers, many of international repute. Active research programs are present at all major clinical partners and opportunities for research training and electives are available for medical students and residents. The various research interests within the department include, systems of care in psychiatry and child psychiatry, psychopharmacology in the foster care system, community and employer based depression care, schizophrenia, including prevention of first episodes of psychosis, neuroimaging, neuropsychology, bipolar depression, mood disorder, eating disorders, psychiatric and medical illness, compassionate care, psychiatric disorders and inflammation, substance abuse treatment, end of life care and geriatric psychiatry.