Addiction Psychiatry

Torie S. Sepah

Physician Specialist, Clinical Professor.
USC Department of Psychiatry.
San Francisco, California

Biography

Torie S. Sepah, MD is a physician psychiatrist, with Board Certification by the ABPN in Adult Psychiatry. She completed undergraduate at UCLA with a BA in Political Science and medical school at Tulane School of Medicine, where she was inducted into the Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society for exemplifying humanistic care. She completed internship in Family Medicine at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center and residency in Psychiatry at LA County-University of Southern California. Dr. Sepah was a Chief Resident during residency at which time she conducted research on physician burnout among two departments, from the resident to attending level. As an outgrowth of this, she spearheaded resident and fellow peer to peer to burnout prevention groups during the workweek at USC for psychiatry residents and some Ob/gyn programs. Following residency, Dr. Sepah has worked for five years in Correctional Psychiatry, from the County, Federal to State levels. Most recently, she was Chief Psychiatrist at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s California Institution for Women—one of two facilities within the 29 prison system to house two licensed inpatient psychiatric facilities. During her tenure, she facilitated the implementation of the State’s only Medication Assistant Treatment Program for female inmates, which made Naltrexone IM as well as other medications used for the treatment of substance use disorders available for the first time in the state’s history. This program represented a shift in paradigm, as treatment of substance use disorders in correctional settings has not been the mainstay of care provided, despite the overwhelming number of inmates with substance related charges and complications from illicit substance use while incarcerated. Access and the delivery of care is one of Dr. Sepahs areas of interest. In particular, how eliminating the many silos that exist between substance use treatment, mental health treatment and primary care would increase access to treatment and care, thereby reducing morbidity. Ideally, mental health treatment and medication assisted treatment would exist on a continuum with primary care, thereby both reducing the stigma associated with the former two areas of care, and pragmatically, increasing access by making treatment more visible, more available. She also continues to work on understanding the phenomenon of physician burnout through the administration of a physician only burnout group online with 1k+ members. The goal of this group is to provide physicians with a peer group support forum to share their views openly, and in doing so, for the group to build camaraderie, and create solutions to remedy burnout that are physician driven. Prior to attending medical school, Dr. Sepah worked as a journalist, she was the Assistant Editor of Ms. Magazine in New York City. She continues to write articles on the physician experience. Currently, she is Physician Specialist as well as Associate Clinical Professor at USC’s Department of Psychiatry.

Research Area

Depression and anxiety