DIANE MCINTOSH
BSc Pharmacy, MD, FRCPC
Clinical Assistant Professor,
University of British Columbia
Dr. McIntosh obtained an undergraduate degree in pharmacy before completing her medical school training, 2-years of a pediatric residency and then an adult psychiatry residency. She is a clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia and has a community psychiatry practice.
Dr. McIntosh is extensively involved in providing continuing medical education programs to colleagues nationally and internationally, with a focus on rational pharmacology and the neurobiology of mood and anxiety disorders and ADHD. Every year, she delivers more than 200 lectures, always coming back to an essential, central theme: we must strive to improve the quality of care and the treatment options available for people diagnosed with a mental illness.
Dr. McIntosh is the co-founder of SwitchRx, the online psychotropic switching tool for prescribers and pharmacists. She is the co-founder of PsychedUp, a continuing medical education program that was developed to encourage the appropriate, confident, rational prescribing of psychiatric medications. She has published blogs in Psychology Today and the Huffington Post and Op-Eds for newspapers focusing on mental health issues. She is also the founder of We Do Matter, which advocates more compassionate care for psychiatric patients and their families.
Dr. McIntosh’s new book, This is Depression: A comprehensive and compassionate guide for those who want to understand depression, was launched on October 10, 2019 and quickly became an Amazon Canada bestseller. It is written for those who have depression, for those who love someone who is depressed, and for anyone who wants to better understand the disorder.
“I wrote This Is Depression for those who have depression, those who love someone who has depression, and for those who want to learn more about this disabling disorder.
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Ignorance drives stigma!
By reading this book, you are challenging that stigma head on.
“Dr. Diane McIntosh is an outstanding communicator. This Is Depression translates the way clinicians and researchers think about many aspects of the most disabling disorder in today’s society. Her discussion of the genetic and brain disruptions in people with ‘major depression’ conveys complex science in plain language and provides the rationale for subsequent discussions of cognitive and other ‘talk’ therapies as well as the different families of medications and ‘device’ therapies. I recommend This Is Depression to anyone who needs to know more about the current understanding and treatments for depression, particularly persons with lived experience and their families. Anyone reading This Is Depression before going to see a mental health specialist will be an informed consumer.”
Sidney H. Kennedy, professor of psychiatry, University of Toronto