Anthony Feinstein MBBCh, MPhil, PhD, FRCPC

Anthony Feinstein is a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. His research follows two broad strands. The first focuses on the search for cerebral correlates of behavioral disorders associated with multiple sclerosis. His neuroimaging (MRI) studies have helped define the structural brain changes associated with depression in people with MS. His lab has developed novel, computerized neuropsychological assessments that are sensitive to cognitive impairment in people with MS. Current work has elucidated the functional brain changes and cognitive dysfunction secondary to cannabis use in people with MS. He is the principal investigator on a six-country, 11-center neuro-rehabilitation study investigating the potential cognitive benefits of combined aerobic exercise and cognitive rehabilitation in people with a chronic progressive disease course.

His second research area relates to the study of journalists in conflict situations. He has published a series of seminal studies exploring the psychological effects of conflict on journalists covering the Balkans, Iraq, Mexico, Syria, Kenya, Iran, Afghanistan, the refugee crisis in Europe, and the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on New York City. He currently consults with a number of news organizations including the Globe and Mail, CNN, and the New York Times.

Dr. Feinstein is the author of In Conflict (New Namibia Books, 1998), Dangerous Lives: War and the Men and Women Who Report It (Thomas Allen, Toronto 2003), The Clinical Neuropsychiatry of Multiple Sclerosis (Cambridge University Press 1999, with a second edition in 2007), Michael Rabin, America’s Virtuoso Violinist (Amadeus Press, 2005, second edition, 2011; audiobook, 2017), Journalists Under Fire: the Psychological Hazards of Covering War (John Hopkins University Press, 2006), Battle-Scarred (Tafelberg Press, 2011) and Shooting War (Glitterati Editions, 2018). His latest book is Mind, Mood and Memory in Multiple Sclerosis (Johns Hopkins University Press), due out in the spring of 2022. He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and has authored many book chapters.

In 2000-2001 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study mental health issues in post-apartheid Namibia. In 2012, he produced a documentary, “Under Fire” based on his research of journalists in war zones. It was longlisted for an Academy Award and won a 2012 Peabody Award. His series Shooting War for the Globe and Mail Newspaper was shortlisted for a 2016 EPPY award.