Simon Ducharme, MD, MSc, FRCP(C)

ducharme_grey_background

Contact

 simon.ducharme@mcgill.ca

 

6875 Boulevard LaSalle Montréal, QC H4H 1R3

Researcher, Douglas Research Centre
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
Clinical Research Scholar, Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS), Senior

Lab name: FTD & Neuropsychiatry Lab

Theme-Based Group: Aging, Cognition, and Alzheimer’s Disease
Division: Clinical Research

 

The FTD & Neuropsychiatry Lab led by Dr. Simon Ducharme aims to develop clinical and therapeutic tools for neuropsychiatric disorders, focusing on major neurocognitive disorders. We are conducting translational studies using structural and functional imaging in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) to improve early diagnostic markers for this devastating disease. Our group is involved in several national and international neuroimaging studies on dementia, in addition to innovative clinical trials on Alzheimer’s disease and FTD.

Dr. Simon Ducharme has a medical degree from the Université de Montréal and a Masters from McGill University. He completed his residency in Psychiatry at McGill in 2012, and a fellowship in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry at Harvard University in 2014.

He has a board certification in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry from the United Council for Neurological Subspecialties. He currently works as a Neuropsychiatrist at the Douglas Mental Health Institute. He has a clinical specialty in frontotemporal dementia.

Dr. Ducharme has received over 35 awards of academic or research excellence, including the 2013 Career Development Award from the American Neuropsychiatric Association and is an FRQS-funded clinician-scientist.

His research uses advanced structural brain-imaging techniques to study the longitudinal changes in brain development from childhood to old age, and how it impacts behaviour across health and psychopathology. His current projects aim to develop novel neuroimaging diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for frontotemporal dementia.

He is the Montreal site PI of the Genetic Frontotemporal Dementia Initiative study and the FTD team leader of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging. He is the current chair of the American Neuropsychiatric Association committee on research. Dr. Ducharme is in charge of several clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.

Dr. David Benrimoh David Benrimoh, MD Graduate Student
Tristin Best Tristin Best, MSc Graduate Student, IPN program
Simon Ducharme,
MD, MSc, FRCP(C)		 Principal Investigator
Dr. Jake Levy Jake Levy, MD Graduate Student
Dr. Ana Manera Ana Manera, MD Post-Doctoral Fellow
Jillian McCarthy Jillian McCarthy, BSc Graduate Student
Mahdie Soltaninejad Graduate Student, IPN program
Teodora Yaneva Teodora Yaneva, MSc Research Staff

  Publications on PubMed

  Google Scholar Profile

Key publications

Liste complète des publications.
  1. Manera AL, Dadar M, Collins DL, Ducharme S; Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Neuroimaging Initiative. Deformation based morphometry study of longitudinal MRI changes in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. Neuroimage Clin. 2019;24:102079. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.102079. Epub 2019 Nov 5. Pubmed PMID: 31795051.
  2. Ducharme S, Pearl-Dowler L, Gossink F, McCarthy J, Lai J, Dickerson BC, Chertkow H, Rapin L, Vijverberg E, Krudop W, Dols A, Pijnenburg Y. The Frontotemporal Dementia versus Primary Psychiatric Disorder (FTD versus PPD) Checklist: A Bedside Clinical Tool to Identify Behavioral Variant FTD in Patients with Late-Onset Behavioral Changes. J Alzheimers Dis. 2019;67(1):113-124. PubMed PMID: 30584146.
  3. Levy JP, Bocti C, Elie D, Paquet N, Soucy JP, Ducharme S. Bifrontal Hypermetabolism on Brain FDG-PET in a Case of C9orf72-Related Behavioral Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2019 Winter;31(1):92-94. PubMed PMID: 30404533.
  4. Benrimoh D, Pomerleau VJ, Demoustier A, Poulin S, Maltais JR, Brouillette J, Ducharme S. Why We Still Use “Organic Causes”: Results From a Survey of Psychiatrists and Residents. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2019 Winter;31(1):57-64. PubMed PMID: 30305004.
  5. Alhusaini S, Karama S, Nguyen TV, Thiel A, Bernhardt BC, Cox SR, Corley J, Taylor A, Evans AC, Star JM, Bastin ME, Wardlaw JM, Deary IJ, Ducharme S. Association between carotid atheroma and cerebral cortex structure at age 73 years. Ann Neurol. 2018 Oct;84(4):576-587. PubMed PMID: 30179274.
  6. McCarthy J, Collins DL, Ducharme S. Morphometric MRI as a diagnostic biomarker of frontotemporal dementia: A systematic review to determine clinical applicability. Neuroimage Clin. 2018;20:685-696. PubMed PMID: 30218900.
  7. Ducharme S, Price BH, Dickerson BC. Apathy: a neurocircuitry model based on frontotemporal dementia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2018 Apr;89(4):389-396. PubMed PMID: 29066518.
  8. Ducharme S, Bajestan S, Dickerson BC, Voon V. Psychiatric Presentations of C9orf72 Mutation: What Are the Diagnostic Implications for Clinicians? J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2017 Summer;29(3):195-205. PubMed PMID: 28238272.
  9. Ducharme S, Albaugh MD, Nguyen TV, Hudziak JJ, Mateos-Pérez JM, Labbe A, Evans AC, Karama S. Trajectories of cortical thickness maturation in normal brain development–The importance of quality control procedures. Neuroimage. 2016 Jan 15;125:267-279. PubMed PMID: 26463175.
  10. Ducharme S, Murray ED, Seiner SJ, Tayeb H, Legesse B, Price BH. Retrospective Analysis of the Short-Term Safety of ECT in Patients With Neurological Comorbidities: A Guide for Pre-ECT Neurological Evaluations. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2015 Fall;27(4):311-21. PubMed PMID: 25658682.
  11. Ducharme S, Price BH, Larvie M, Dougherty DD, Dickerson BC. Clinical Approach to the Differential Diagnosis Between Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia and Primary Psychiatric Disorders. Am J Psychiatry. 2015 Sep 1;172(9):827-37. PubMed PMID: 26324301.
  12. Ducharme S, Dickerson BC. The neuropsychiatric examination of the young-onset dementias. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2015 Jun;38(2):249-64. PubMed PMID: 25998114.
  13. Karama S, Ducharme S, Corley J, Chouinard-Decorte F, Starr JM, Wardlaw JM, Bastin ME, Deary IJ. Cigarette smoking and thinning of the brain’s cortex. Mol Psychiatry. 2015 Jun;20(6):778-85. PubMed PMID: 25666755.
  14. Ducharme S, Albaugh MD, Hudziak JJ, Botteron KN, Nguyen TV, Truong C, Evans AC, Karama S. Anxious/depressed symptoms are linked to right ventromedial prefrontal cortical thickness maturation in healthy children and young adults. Cereb Cortex. 2014 Nov;24(11):2941-50. PubMed PMID: 23749874.
  15. Ducharme S, Guiot MC, Nikelski J, Chertkow H. Does a positive Pittsburgh Compound B scan in a patient with dementia equal Alzheimer disease?. JAMA Neurol. 2013 Jul;70(7):912-4. PubMed PMID: 23689280.
  16. Ducharme S, Hudziak JJ, Botteron KN, Albaugh MD, Nguyen TV, Karama S, Evans AC. Decreased regional cortical thickness and thinning rate are associated with inattention symptoms in healthy children. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2012 Jan;51(1):18-27 PubMed PMID: 22176936.
  17. Le Blanc G, Jetté Pomerleau V, McCarthy J, Borroni B, van Swieten J, Galimberti D, Sanchez-Valle R, LaForce R Jr, Moreno F, Synofzik M, Graff C, Masellis M, Tartaglia MC, Rowe JB, Vandenberghe R, Finger E, Tagliavini F, de Mendonça A, Santana I, Butler C, Gerhard A, Danek A, Levin J, Otto M, Frisoni G, Sorbi S, Rohrer JD, Ducharme S; Genetic Frontotemporal Dementia Initiative (GENFI). Faster Cortical Thinning and Surface Area Loss in Presymptomatic and Symptomatic C9orf72 Repeat Expansion Adult Carriers. Ann Neurol. 2020 Jul;88(1):113-122
  18. Ducharme S, Dols A, Laforce Jr R, Devenney E, Kumfor F, van den Stock J, Dallaire-Théroux C, Seelaar H, Gossink F, Vijverberg E, Huey E, Vandenbuicke M, Masellis M, Trieu C, Onyike C, Caramelli P, de Souza L, Santillo A, Landqvist Waldö M, Landin-Romero R, Piguet O, Kelso W, Eratne D, Velakouli D, Ikeda M, Perry D, Pressman P, Boeve B, Vandenberghe, R, Mendez M, Azuar C, Levy R, Le Ber I, Baez S, Lerner A, Ellajosyula R, Pasquier F, Galimberti D, Scarpini E, van Swieten J, Hornberger M, Rosen H, Hodges J, Diehl-Schmid J, Pijnenburg Y. Recommendations to Distinguish Behavioural Variant Frontotemporal Dementia from Psychiatric Disorders. Brain. 2020 Jun 1;143(6):1632-1650.