Clifford Cassidy , PhD

Dr. Clifford Cassidy is a scientist at The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR), affiliated with the University of Ottawa. He is also an Assistant Professor (Cellular and Molecular Medicine) and the Director of Scholarly Activity and Research Stream, Department of Psychiatry, at the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Cassidy received his BSc (Physiology), MSc (Neuroscience) and PhD (Psychiatric Research) from McGill University (Montreal, Canada). He then went on to complete a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Brain Imaging at Columbia University in New York City.

Since arriving at the IMHR in 2016, Dr. Cassidy has continued his neuroimaging work in schizophrenia and has expanded his research scope to the study of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other neuropsychiatric conditions. His current research program, housed within the Military Mental Health Unit of the IMHR, uses multimodal neuroimaging methods to understand brain mechanisms of psychopathology. His research team is interested in the dopamine and noradrenaline neurotransmitter systems and how these may be disrupted in conditions such as PTSD, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and addiction, as well as how these systems function in healthy individuals.

Dr. Cassidy’s research goal is to bridge the gap between the problems faced by individuals with mental illness and the technical challenges of understanding brain function. By contributing his expertise to these two disparate questions, he strives towards a more scientific understanding of human experience. Such insights serve to advance neuroscience and could also improve mental health outcomes, particularly when they can explain psychiatric risk or improve strategies for early intervention and prevention of conditions such as PTSD and schizophrenia.

Dr. Cassidy is a member of the Parkinson’s Research Consortium, and his research program maintains close ties with The Royal’s Schizophrenia Program.