Ayan Dey

Dr. Ayan Dey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is a clinician-teacher and consultation-liaison psychiatrist at North York General Hospital, where his practice spans inpatient consultation-liaison psychiatry, sleep medicine, and outpatient care with a focus on complex mood and anxiety disorders in neuropsychiatric populations.

Dr. Dey completed his undergraduate training in Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University. He subsequently completed his MD and PhD training through the MD/PhD Program at the University of Toronto, where his doctoral thesis examined heterogeneity in cognitive outcomes in the setting of acquired brain injury and cerebrovascular disease using multimodal functional neuroimaging. He completed his psychiatry residency at the University of Toronto in 2025, during which he served as Chief Resident of the Clinician Scientist Program.

His clinical and academic work focuses on the intersection of neuropsychiatry, sleep medicine, and complex psychiatric illness. He has a particular interest in how sleep disturbance and executive dysfunction operate as transdiagnostic risk factors for treatment resistance in mood and anxiety disorders, and in identifying these factors early to support more personalised and effective care. He maintains additional clinical interests in acquired brain injury, ADHD, and interventional psychiatry, including rTMS and ECT. He is also actively engaged in quality improvement, with a focus on measurement-based care implementation and the application of artificial intelligence in psychiatric practice.

Dr. Dey is committed to the education and mentorship of medical students and psychiatry residents at the University of Toronto. He welcomes learners interested in consultation-liaison psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, sleep medicine, or research training to reach out regarding shadowing or elective opportunities.

Academic/Research Interests

Executive dysfunction in psychiatric populations, cognitive recovery, ADHD, insomnia, treatment-resistant depression, brain injury, brain stimulation, measurement-based care implementation, AI in psychiatry, and quality improvement.

Recent Publications

1. Dey, A., Lewis, Z., Posel, J., Pan, R., & Wang, K. (2025). Quantifying Care, Qualifying Experiences: A Systematic Review of Measurement Based Care in Psychiatry from Patient and Provider Perspectives. BMJ Mental Health. Pre-print available at: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.13.25323641v1
2. Dey, A., Do, L, Almagor, D., Khullar, A. (2025). Managing comorbid sleep issues in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. CMAJ, 197(12), E323-E424. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.241262
3. Mollica, A., Dey, A., Cairncross, M., Silverberg, N., Burke, M.J. (2022). Neuropsychiatric Treatment for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Nonpharmacological Approaches. Seminars in Neurology.
4. Dey, A.K., Kam, A., Tam, A., Bayley, M., & Guo, M. (2021). Sleep disturbance and length of stay in the setting of acquired brain injury rehabilitation.  Brain Injury, 35:9, 1022-1027, DOI: 10.1080/02699052.2021.1945144
5. Dey, A.K., Stamenova, V., Bacopulos, A., Jeyakumar, N., Turner, G., Black, S.E., & Levine, B. (2019). Cognitive heterogeneity among community-dwelling older adults with cerebral small vessel disease. Neurobiology of Aging, 77, 183-193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2018.12.011

Honours and Awards

• John Armstrong Award for Excellence in Teaching in Mental Health and Addictions 2026
• Fred Lowy Award for Psychosomatic Medicine for research contributions 2025
• Max Alexandroff Award, Division of Consultation-Laison Psychiatry 2025
• MD Program Teaching Award of Excellence for the 2022-2023 academic year 2024
• Teresa Mak Memorial Award for research in the role of sleep in mental disorders 2024
• Dr. Harvey Moldofsky Postgraduate Research Fellowship Award, $3000 2023