Dr. Raymond W. Lam was born and raised in Vancouver where he completed his medical degree in 1981 at the University of British Columbia.
Following a rotating internship at the Jewish General Hospital/McGill University in Montreal, he completed residency training in psychiatry at the University of BC, and a postgraduate fellowship in the Psychobiology of Mood Disorders at the University of California, San Diego.
Since 1988, Dr. Lam has been on faculty in the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of BC, where he is now a Professor of Psychiatry, Head of the Division of Clinical Neuroscience as well as Medical Director of the Mood Disorders Centre at UBC Hospital.
Dr. Lam is the sole Canadian Foundation Fellow for the International Society for Affective Disorders. He sits on the editorial boards of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, and Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms, the official publication of the international Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms.
His research and clinical interests are in the areas of seasonal, atypical, chronic and resistant depression, clinical psychopharmacology, light therapy, seasonality of psychiatric disorders, serotonin and catecholamine mechanisms in depression, circadian rhythm disturbances, and population-based treatment programs for depression.
Dr. Lam has authored over 170 scientific articles and book chapters, and has edited 2 books, Seasonal Affective Disorder and Beyond: Light Treatment for SAD and non-SAD Conditions and Canadian Consensus Guidelines for the Treatment of SAD.
Dr. Lam has received many research grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation, the BC Health Research Foundation, and others.
He reviews for several scientific journals and granting agencies, and sits on the Editorial Boards for the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry and Visions: published by the Canadian Mental Health Association.
In 2001, Dr. Lam was the inaugural annual recipient of the Douglas Utting Prize and Medal for Depression Research (McGill University), for his significant contribution to the understanding of depression and its treatment.
He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Lam has spearheaded national clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and pharmacological treatment of depressive disorders, and for the treatment of seasonal affective disorder.
Dr. Lam is a leader in medical education. He co-chaired the Brain and Behaviour block in the case-based learning curriculum of the UBC medical school.
He is the 1998 recipient of the Nancy A. Roeske Award for Excellence in Medical Student Education (American Psychiatric Association).
