Thank you to all those who continue to support the Pacific Psychopharmacology Conference year after year.
The 19th Annual Pacific Psychopharmacology Conference, organized by the UBC Department of Psychiatry and UBC CPD, took place in downtown Vancouver on September 25 and 26, 2025. One again, we saw a great turnout for the event, both in-person and online, with some presenters and some attendees participating remotely. On Thursday afternoon, a total of 91 practitioners spent the afternoon learning from local experts, and on Friday, 151 attendees were on site and 196 attended virtually.
Derek Thompson, Director, Indigenous Engagement for the UBC Faculty of Medicine, provided remarks for the conferees and speakers to open the meeting on Friday in advance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Highlights of the day’s plenary sessions included Professor Sagar Parikh ‘s presentation on The Next Wave of Antidepressants: Novel and emerging therapies for mood disorders in Canada. Professor Parikh, the John F. Greden Professor of Depression and Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Michigan, gave an engaging afternoon session on changing paradigms for depression treatment.
Other speakers included Dr. Christoph U. Correll, presenting on augmentation strategies in schizophrenia; Dr. Jeffrey DeVido and Dr. Anees Bahji both speaking to treatment of co-occurring mental health and addiction disorders; Dr. Dallas Seitz discussing update to Geriatric Psychopharmacology; and Dr. Carolina Goldman Bergmann offering practical strategies for managing adult ADHD in clinical practice, among others. The conference has a goal of including high-quality speakers, both international and local, who can address important clinical topics across the spectrum of ages and disorders. Perspectives from people with lived experience have been included in recent years.
The conference committee is co-chaired by Randall F. White and Reza Rafizadeh. The committee is very grateful to the organizational and on-the-ground support from UBC CPD.
Next year’s conference will be in September. Look for the announcement of the exact date in early 2026.