What is CANMAT (Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments)?

Updated

CANMAT is a Canadian network of academic and clinical experts focused on improving clinical care for people with mood and anxiety disorders. It serves two audiences at once: health professionals who need current scientific information, treatment guidelines, and educational activities, and patients and families who need clear, practical information about symptoms and treatments. If you are a clinician looking for evidence-based guidance, or a patient or family member trying to understand a diagnosis or treatment option, CANMAT is designed as a direct resource for you.

Who CANMAT is for

The site organizes its resources into two main paths:

  • Health Professionals — up-to-date scientific information, treatment guidelines, and educational activities.
  • Patients and Families — plain-language information about symptoms and treatments.

This split matters because the depth and framing differ. Clinical guidelines assume professional training; patient-facing material is written to be understandable without it.

What you can access

CANMAT publishes treatment guidelines and clinical resources, along with news about new releases. Two examples listed on the site:

Resource Status
2025 CANMAT and ICOCS Guidelines for the treatment of OCD Available
CANMAT 2024 Guidelines for Perinatal Mood, Anxiety, & Related Disorders, with Patient and Family Guide Available

The perinatal guideline is notable because it pairs a clinical guideline with a patient and family guide — so both audiences get a version suited to them.

Registration and access

CANMAT offers registration on its site. According to the site, signing up lets you receive updates and access treatment guidelines and clinical resources, and registration is described as free. If you have already registered, you can log in instead.

A practical note: the site states registration is free, but it does not describe any paywall or paid tier, so treat "free registration" as the stated condition for the resources it covers rather than an assumption about every item on the site.

How to use it

  1. Decide which audience you fall into — health professional, or patient/family.
  2. Go to the matching resources section.
  3. Register if you want updates and access to guidelines and clinical resources.
  4. Check the news section for the latest guideline releases, since CANMAT posts new guidelines there as they become available.

Common sticking points

  • Guidelines vs. patient guides are not interchangeable. If you are a patient, start with the patient and family guide where one exists (as with the perinatal guideline) rather than the clinical version.
  • New releases appear over time. The site lists dated announcements, so a guideline you need may be newer than what you last saw — check the news listings.
  • Registration is the gate for some resources. If a guideline or clinical resource is not directly visible, registering or logging in is the stated route to it.