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Roberto Sassi

MD, PhD
  • Psychiatrist in Chief, BC Children's and Women's Hospitals

  • Associate Professor (Partner), Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia

  • Head, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia

  • Investigator, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute and BCCH Brain, Behaviour, Development Theme

  • Adjunct Member, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University

  • Corresponding Member, Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University

Positions
Biography

Dr. Roberto Sassi is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Associate Professor (Partner), Head of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the UBC Department of Psychiatry, and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at BC Children’s and Women’s Hospitals. He graduated from medical school at the University of São Paulo, Brazil in 1996. Dr. Sassi completed his residency training in adult psychiatry at the University of São Paulo as well as at the Massachusetts General Hospital / McLean Hospital, Harvard University, in both adult and child & adolescent psychiatry Dr. Sassi has a PhD degree from the University of Sao Paulo, with a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroimaging at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, where he worked on magnetic resonance imaging investigations on bipolar disorder. Prior to joining UBC, Dr. Sassi held faculty appointments at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, FL and at McMaster University, in Hamilton, ON. Dr. Sassi’s clinical research interests include (1) understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of bipolar disorders in children, adolescents and young adults, including among children at high-risk to develop severe mood disorders, and potential early interventions in this population; (2) the multigenerational transmission of risk for psychopathology, with focus on the interplay of genetic and environmental factors, and (3) implementing measurement-based care in child and youth mental health. Dr. Sassi’s clinical focus is on children, adolescents and young adults with mood disorders.

Areas of Interest
  • Medical Education

  • Psychopharmacology

  • Research (medical, clinical, translational)

  • Neuroimaging

  • Epidemiology

  • Mental Health

  • Treatment

  • Psychology

  • Health Services Research

  • Cognitive Neuroscience

  • Genetics

Awards
  • Certificate of Special Recognition, Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2021)

  • Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Faculty Teaching Award, McMaster University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences (2018)

  • Jock Cleghorn Excellence in Clinical Teaching Award, McMaster University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences (2014)

  • American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Junior Scholar Award (2013)

  • USA National Institute of Mental Health Outstanding Resident Award (2005)

The Institute for Global Health acknowledges with gratitude, that we gather and operate on the unceded, traditional, and ancestral territory of the Coast Salish peoples — xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. First Nations who have nurtured and cared for the lands and waters around us for all time. We invite everyone to reflect on the traditional territories and land that they currently work and live on.

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