Cristina Cusin, MD: Finding Solutions for Severe Depression
Episode #26 of the Charged podcast
About Cristina Cusin, MD
Dr. Cusin went to Medical School at the Universita degli Studi, in Milan, Italy, where she also completed a residency in Psychiatry.
Dr. Cusin was working as Psychiatrist in an inpatient unit and involved in research when in 2004 she decided to come to the U.S. for a Research Fellowship at Mass. General Hospital.
She decided to pursue further training in the U.S. and after completing the Adult Psychiatry Residency at MGH/McLean she joined the staff of the Depression Clinical & Research Program (DCRP), under the mentorship of Dr Maurizio Fava.
She is Associate Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Cusin is the director and founder of the MGH Ketamine clinic for treatment-resistant depression. She also has an outpatient clinic at the DCRP and often performs consultations for patients with Treatment-Resistant Depression. She has expertise in ketamine, VNS and DBS. Finally, she is one of the clinicians in the ECT team at MGH and she is involved in numerous research studies on ketamine in treatment-resistant mood disorders at MGH.
Clinical Interests:
- Deep brain stimulation
- Electroconvulsive therapy
- Genetics of mood disorders
- Ketamine Treatment
- Mechanisms of placebo response
- Psychopharmacology
- Treatment-resistant depression
Treats:
- Adult
Languages:
- French, Italian
Locations
Mass General Psychiatry: Depression Clinical & Research Program
One Bowdoin Square
6th Floor
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-726-8895
Medical Education
- MD, Universita Di Milano
- Residency, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Residency, Universita degli Studi di Milano
- Fellowship, Universita Vita Salute San Raffaele
American Board Certifications
- Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Accepted Insurance Plans
- Aetna
- Beech Street
- Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare
- Carelon Behavioral Health
- Commonwealth Care Alliance
- Coventry
- Evernorth Behavioral Health
- Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
- Humana
- Mass General Brigham Health Plan
- MassHealth
- Medicaid ME
- Medicaid NH
- Medicaid RI
- Medicaid VT
- Medicare
- Medicare ACO
- Multiplan
- Railroad Medicare
- Senior Whole Health
- TriCare
- Tufts Health Plan
- United Behavioral Health
- Wellpoint
- WellSense
- WellSense NH
Note: This provider may accept more insurance plans than shown; please call the practice to find out if your plan is accepted.
Research
Dr. Cusin's field of interest is Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD).
At the Depression Clinical & Research Program (DCRP), she is involved in numerous clinical trials, sponsored by NIMH and foundations, investigating new pharmacologic treatments for Major Depression and TRD, including intravenous administration of ketamine
She was one of the programmers in the pivotal trial for Deep Brain Stimulation for MDD sponsored by Medtronic, for patients affected by extremely treatment-refractory depression. She is currently involved in a research study investigating Vagal Nerve Stimulator for depression.
Dr. Cusin's focus of research includes detecting biomarkers of antidepressant response and possible neurobiological mechanisms of placebo response in antidepressant clinical trials.