Sina Nikayin, MD

Sina Nikayin, MD, is a psychiatrist at the Yale Interventional Psychiatry Service (IPS). Interventional psychiatrists utilize advanced modalities and procedures to treat patients who are resistant to other treatments such as medications, and who may be at higher risk of medical and psychiatric complications because of the severity of their illness.

At the IPS, Dr. Nikayin works with a variety of therapies, including ketamine, esketamine (Spravato), electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to treat treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Some of these modalities can also be used to treat other psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorders and schizoaffective disorder.

“Interventional modalities can provide significant relief and improvement to patients who have been suffering from depression or other psychiatric disorders for a long time, have tried and failed multiple treatments, and may have been suffering for many years,” says Dr. Nikayin.

It’s rewarding to be able to help these patients find relief, he adds. “For me, the highest reward is when my patients experience relief from their symptoms, when they tell me that they had almost forgotten what it was like to not feel the burden of depression. Once again, they are able to genuinely laugh or enjoy activities they used to love.”

In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Nikayin is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, where he and his colleagues are involved in multiple clinical research projects designed to address such topics as the effectiveness of ketamine as an antidepressant in Parkinson’s disease, the use of cognitive behavioral therapy alongside esketamine in the treatment of depression with suicidal ideation, and the effectiveness and safety of ECT compared to ketamine in treatment of depression.