Dr. Lipsman on CTV Your Morning

Dr. Nir Lipsman, director of the Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation at Sunnybrook, recently appeared on CTV’s Your Morning to discuss the innovative field of neuromodulation in the treatment of mental health and neurological disorders.

Some examples of neuromodulation include: Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) which uses magnetic pulses to reach areas of the brain impacted by mental illness such as depression; focused ultrasound which harnesses the power of sound waves to target specific brain pathways without the need for scalpels or cutting, and deep brain stimulation which is a neurosurgical procedure.

“We know from work that we’ve done at Sunnybrook, that we can pinpoint areas of the brain that are dysfunctional or not working as well as they should be in patients with hard-to-treat neurological and psychiatric disorders,” Dr. Lipsman explained on the show.

Dr. Lipsman discussed how brain circuitry could be influenced to potentially improve symptoms and that a wide spectrum of psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders are being investigated in neuromodulation studies at Sunnybrook including: major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and others.

“We’re really harnessing what we can with this technology,” said Dr. Lipsman. “ To enhance or improve the delivery of treatments to the brain.”

Watch Dr. Lipsman’s full interview on CTV’s Your Morning.

Learn more about the Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation.