Vidya Raj
Assistant Professor
Psychiatrist
BSc (Hons) Pathology
MB ChB Medicine
Contact information
Phone
Research and teaching
Clinical Research
- Mood and anxiety disorders in cardiac patients
- Psychosomatic medicine
Biography
Vidya Raj was brought up in the United Kingdom in one of the smallest towns in England. After completing medical school in Manchester, she began Residency training in Family Practice….but never finished as she met her Canadian husband to be. After marrying, she moved to Nashville TN and completed her Residency in Psychiatry and Fellowship in Psychosomatic Medicine at Vanderbilt University. She joined the Vanderbilt University Faculty as a Consulting Psychiatrist, developed Vanderbilt’s Electroconvulsive Therapy Service and started a Cardiac Mood Disorders Subspecialty clinic. In July 2014, she moved to Calgary.
She consults as a general outpatient psychiatrist, educates Family Practice residents as part of their Mental Health training, and is the director of the Calgary Hearts and Minds Clinic, which she founded in September 2016. This program provides psychiatric consultation and short to medium term treatment to patients referred by any Cardiology service in Calgary and the surrounding area. Dr. Raj’s clinical areas of expertise include mood and anxiety disorders, and the psychiatric management of patients with heart disease.
Publications
1. Hall J, Bourne KM, Sheldon RS, Vernino S, Raj V, Ng J, Okamoto LE, Arnold AC, Bryarly M, Phillips L, Paranjape SY, Raj SR. A comparison of health-related quality of life in autonomic disorders: postural tachycardia syndrome versus vasovagal syncope. Clin Auton Res. 2021 Feb 7. doi: 10.1007/s10286-021-00781-x. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33550497.
2. Opie M, Raj V, Arnold AC (2021). “Psychological and Psychiatric Support; When, Why and What to Do” in Postural Tachycardia Syndrome: A Concise and Practical Guide to Management and Associated Conditions, edited by Gall N, Kavi L and Lobo M. Pub: Springer. Pages 271-287.
3. Shaw BH, Stiles LE, Bourne K, Green EA, Shibao CA, Okamoto LE, Garland EM, Gamboa A, Diedrich A, Raj V, Sheldon RS, Biaggioni I, Robertson D, Raj SR. The face of postural tachycardia syndrome - insights from a large cross-sectional online community-based survey. J Intern Med. 2019 Oct;286(4):438-448. doi: 10.1111/joim.12895. Epub 2019 Apr 16. PMID: 30861229; PMCID: PMC6790699.
4. Arnold AC, Haman K, Garland EM, Raj V, Dupont WD, Biaggioni I, Robertson D, Raj SR. Cognitive Dysfunction in Postural Tachycardia Syndrome. Clin Sci 2015 Jan 1; 128 (1): 39-45. doi: 10.1042/CS20140251. PMID: 25001527
5. Raj V, Rowe AA, Fleisch SB, Paranjape SY, Arain AM, Nicolson SE. Psychogenic Pseudosyncope: Diagnosis and Management. Auton Neurosci 2014 Sept; 184: 66-72. doi: 10.1016/j.autneu.2014.05.003. PMID: 16697264