Conditions and Treatments
We have adapted services, programs and clinics for patients suffering from a wide range of conditions.
For more information on the therapy we offer, please see our list of Programs, Clinics and Services below.
The MUHC Addiction Psychiatry Program is a hospital-based addictions service that provides a continuum of care for adults with substance use disorders. Some of our patients also suffer from concurrent psychiatric disorders and have struggled to find integrated treatment for both addiction and mental health issues. Most of the treatment is provided on an outpatient basis, but inpatient medical detoxification is an integral component of treatment for some patients.
To know more, visit the Addiction Psychiatry Program web page
Everyone feels anxious at some points in their lives, however, some people live with severe and crippling anxiety nearly every day. To know more, visit the Anxiety Disorders Program page
One of our flagship units is the Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Unit. CBT is one of the most effective, evidence-based psychotherapies available in the treatment of emotional distress. By itself, CBT is as good as or better than medication for the treatment of anxiety and depression. Anxiety problems that are helped by CBT include simple phobias (eg needle or blood phobias, animal phobias), panic disorder, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and generalized anxiety. CBT is also effective in health anxiety, tic disorders, and impulse control problems like anger difficulties, hair pulling (trichotillomania) and gambling. In combination with other treatments (such as medication and psycho-education), CBT can also help people with psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and eating disorders.
The Day Hospital is a day program located at the Allan Memorial Institute. It offers five-day-a-week programming for patients. A combination of individual and group therapy is used, and patients learn symptom and medication management, as well as preparing for re-entry into the workplace or the community. It is noteworthy that ours was the first Psychiatric Day Hospital in North America.
The Transitional Day Program, based at the MGH, offers similar programming, for a more acutely-ill group of clients. It functions as an alternative to hospitalization, allowing patients to benefit from a therapeutic setting while being able to remain in their home.
The Early Psychosis and Schizophrenia Spectrum Program (EPSSP) provides early intervention, specialized care, and rehabilitation for individuals with psychotic disorders. The EPSSP includes two clinics:
- The Early Psychosis Intervention Clinic (EPIC)
- The Schizophrenia Tertiary Service (STS)
The Early Psychosis Intervention Clinic (EPIC) goals include preventing the development of behavioural consequences from the experience of psychosis itself, and preventing the deteriorative process of some psychotic illnesses (such as Schizophrenia). The EPIC aims for these goals through early detection, the development of a treatment alliance with the person having experienced psychosis, and adapted multimodal interventions including pharmacological, psychotherapeutic, occupational and social/community interventions. As a teaching clinic, EPIC offers training experiences for medical, nursing and occupational therapy students, as well as psychiatric residents.
The Schizophrenia Tertiary Service (STS) provides services for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, experiencing persistent positive and/or negative and/or cognitive symptoms, which interfere with their ability to function independently and to integrate into their community and society. The Interdisciplinary, specialized service targets individuals who have complex needs that cannot be met in primary care (pharmacological, legal, medical and psychosocial).
The program aims to reduce mood disorder symptoms and increase well-being, improve individual and family functioning, maintain and improve quality of life, encourage individuals to be actively responsible for and participate in achieving their well-being, relapse prevention, promote rehabilitation and foster autonomy.
It also pursues academic objectives, like enhancing education in mental health, offering educational support to community resources and shared-care partners, providing a teaching environment to professionals and students, promoting and conducting research to further our understanding of the determinants, risk factors, course and progression of mood disorders and test novel treatment approaches and interventions.
Our Personality Disorders Program consists of three clinics:
- Short-Term Borderline Personality Disorder Clinic;
- Extended-Care Borderline Personality Disorder Clinic;
- General Personality Disorders Clinic, which offer assessment services and treatment to people with a severe personality disorder.
Staffed by a dedicated team of mental health professionals who specialize in the treatment of personality disorders, these clinics provide comprehensive services for people who require out-patient care and promote psycho-education for their families and significant others.
To be accepted into one of the clinics, a person must be at least 18 years old, and be motivated to make constructive changes in his/her life. Each person receives a thorough assessment, and if appropriate, is offered a treatment plan designed to meet his/her needs. The conceptual frame for the program is trans-theoretical, encompassing psychodynamic, dialectical-behavioural, cognitive-behavioural, and psycho-educational techniques based on established best practices.
The Neuromodulation unit specialize in delivering a safe and effective treatment, called repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or rTMS, for various psychiatric and neurological conditions. rTMS therapy has been extensively validated in clinical trials and medical research studies, and was approved for use in Canada in 2002.