The announcement of the new Center for OCD, Anxiety, and Related Disorders (COARD) brings with it the addition of a rotation for the Department of Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellows.
Director of the new Center, Carol Mathews, MD is the faculty member leading the rotation. Beginning this year, first and second year child fellows will spend 10% of their time in the new pediatric OCD clinic. Here they will learn how to treat patients with OCD, tics and related disorders. They will learn how development influences the psychopathology of OCD and tics and to identify techniques for treating these disorders.
Program Training Director, Mariam Rahmani, MD points out that “pediatric OCD is distinct from adult OCD in some ways. For example, in the pediatric population, OCD is more common in males than females and usually has a prepubertal onset. This rotation will give our child fellows the opportunity to learn more about treating pediatric OCD using medications and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) under Dr. Mathews’ supervision and will also provide specialized treatment to our patients.”
The Child Fellows are excited about this new rotation and the specified training it brings to their education. When asked about his experience in the new rotation, first year child fellow, Christopher Ong, MD says “Being able to work so closely with world renowned OCD experts like Dr. Mathews in conjunction with our colleagues from Medical Psychology allows for an extremely collaborative, challenging, yet stimulating environment where we can brainstorm and learn from our most challenging cases. It is truly an experience unlike any other found in the Department of Psychiatry.”
Second year Child Fellow, Hina Smith, MD adds “Our OCD rotation is a wonderful experience which started this year. We are learning about treating severe or treatment-resistant OCD, offering comprehensive evaluations, expert consultations, novel biological treatments, and presenting on topics with recent studies. With our fellowship training collaboration this year our program has gained a valuable half day clinic.”