Optimization of ECT Technique

Professor, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales

Consultant Psychiatrist, St George Hospital

Professorial Fellow, Black Dog Institute

Director of ECT, Wesley Hospital

Sydney, Australia

Brief Professional Biography

Colleen Loo, MBBS (Hons), FRANZCP, MD (research doctorate), is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales, Professorial Fellow at the Black Dog Institute and Academic Chair of Psychiatry at St George Hospital, Sydney, Australia. She is a clinical and academic psychiatrist and leads the internationally recognized Brain Stimulation Research Team at the Black Dog Institute in Sydney. Her research is focused on improving treatment approaches in Electroconvulsive Therapy and developing novel physical treatments, particularly for depression. She has conducted seminal clinical trials of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and ketamine in depression. She has multiple international collaborations and is currently leading an international multicenter trial of tDCS in depression. Accomplishments include over 100 research publications, several book chapters, and award of over $3.5M in Australian and internationally competitive research grants as a chief investigator. She has been an invited plenary and symposium speaker at conferences in Australia, US, UK and Europe. She is active in ECT & Neurostimulation research, practice and policy, and is an expert adviser to Australian government health departments and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. She chaired the RANZCP Position Statements on ECT and TMS. She is the first international member to be appointed to the Executive Committee of the International Society for ECT and Neurostimulation and is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of ECT. She is active in teaching and founded and directs the Advanced/Refresher ECT Course and the TMS Course in Sydney.