Our fellows have a protected half-day of didactics every week throughout their training.
Our curriculum is immersive, with one core theme per month. Didactics each month include historical background, assessments, hallmark studies, and pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment options related to the core theme.
For example, in July 2025 our core theme is “typical development” and the didactics for this month are titled: History of Childhood; Temperament; Attachment; Developmental milestones assessment; Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development; Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development; Kohlberg’s and Gilligan’s theories of moral development; Vygotsky’s and Bandura’s theories of social learning; theories of racial identity development; and impact of culture on child development. Practical application of these important theories is discussed to make the information relevant for our fellows when they provide patientcare.
For August 2025, our core theme is “child and adolescent mood disorders” and the didactics for this month are titled: Diagnosis, rating scales, comorbidities and course of illness of depressive disorders; Diagnosis, rating scales, comorbidities and course of illness of bipolar disorders; Hallmark articles (treatment of adolescent depression study TADS, treatment of resistant depression in adolescents TORDIA, treatment of adolescent suicide attempers TASA, treatment of early age mania TEAM, clinical outcomes of bipolar youth COBY, and collaborative lithium trials CoLT); pharmacological treatments; interventional treatments (ECT, TMS, ketamine); cognitive behavior therapy for depression and suicidality; dialectical behavioral therapy for depression; interpersonal psychotherapy for depression; mentalization based therapy (MBT); and risk assessments in the ED.
We also have regular Quality Improvement didactics and journal club that are sprinkled throughout the didactic curriculum. Outside of the half day per week for didactics, our fellow also attend monthly mortality and morbidity conference and grand rounds.