David L. Dunner (born May 27, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York) is a psychiatrist in Washington, United States, who has conducted pioneering research into mood disorders, anxiety disorders and their treatment. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 articles and more than 10 books. [1]
Dunner went to Washington University School of Medicine, where the psychiatry department was run along biological lines by Eli Robins. After residency in Philadelphia and back at St Louis, he worked at the National Institute for Mental Health for two years. Along with fellow researchers Frederick K. Goodwin and Elliot S. Gershon he developed the concept of what they called Bipolar II Disorder. Dunner notes that their influential 1976 paper on Bipolar II took six years to get published. [2]
He then went to New York for eight years to work with Ronald R. Fieve on studies of Bipolar disorder and the emerging Lithium treatment, and developed the concept of 'rapid cycling' for bipolar disorder which was found to show less response to Lithium (he credits Canadian scientist Harvey Stancer for first noticing the connection a year prior). Dunner then moved back to Washington becoming professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and chief of psychiatry at Harborview Medical Centre. While there he set up The Center for Anxiety and Depression and became the foremost "clinical expert in bipolar disorder and treatment-resistant depression in the Seattle area". Since his medical residency he has been "involved in clinical studies of every single drug on the US market at least once, if not many times". He has also conducted studies of manualized psychotherapies compared to or combined with medication. He has remarked that he is disappointed they have not discovered the bipolar gene, which he and Elliot Gershon thought they would discover in the early 1970s. [2]
Dunner has been president of the American Psychopathological Association (APPA), president of the Psychiatric Research Society and president of the Society of Biological Psychiatry. He has been editor of the journal Comprehensive Psychiatry . He has won the Samuel Hamilton Award and the Morton Prince Award from the APPA, the Robert Jones Lectureship from the Canadian Psychiatric Association, and the Ward Smith Award from the West Coast College of Biological Psychiatry. [2]
Dunner was on a 1991 FDA Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee which advised that there was not sufficient evidence to support a proposal that antidepressant drugs could cause suicidality or other violent behaviors. However, 5 of the 9 members had financial links to pharmaceutical companies and Dunner in particular had extensive financial links both before and after the hearings with Prozac manufacturer Eli Lilly – the company which testified in person during the hearings. Dunner was subsequently involved in controversy over apparent links between Paxil (seroxat) and suicide/violence. When called to testify in 2001 regarding prior inaccurate data analyses used to conclude there was no link, he claimed to have published without seeing the actual data but only tables provided to him by employees of the drug manufacturer SmithKlineBeecham (now GlaxoSmithKline). [3] [4]
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that each last from days to weeks. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with psychosis, it is called mania; if it is less severe, it is called hypomania. During mania, an individual behaves or feels abnormally energetic, happy or irritable, and they often make impulsive decisions with little regard for the consequences. There is usually also a reduced need for sleep during manic phases. During periods of depression, the individual may experience crying and have a negative outlook on life and poor eye contact with others. The risk of suicide is high; over a period of 20 years, 6% of those with bipolar disorder died by suicide, while 30–40% engaged in self-harm. Other mental health issues, such as anxiety disorders and substance use disorders, are commonly associated with bipolar disorder.
Bipolar I disorder is a type of bipolar spectrum disorder characterized by the occurrence of at least one manic episode, with or without mixed or psychotic features. Most people also, at other times, have one or more depressive episodes.
A mood stabilizer is a psychiatric medication used to treat mood disorders characterized by intense and sustained mood shifts, such as bipolar disorder and the bipolar type of schizoaffective disorder.
A mood disorder, also known as an affective disorder, is any of a group of conditions of mental and behavioral disorder where a disturbance in the person's mood is the main underlying feature. The classification is in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
A psychiatric or psychotropic medication is a psychoactive drug taken to exert an effect on the chemical makeup of the brain and nervous system. Thus, these medications are used to treat mental illnesses. These medications are typically made of synthetic chemical compounds and are usually prescribed in psychiatric settings, potentially involuntarily during commitment. Since the mid-20th century, such medications have been leading treatments for a broad range of mental disorders and have decreased the need for long-term hospitalization, thereby lowering the cost of mental health care. The recidivism or rehospitalization of the mentally ill is at a high rate in many countries, and the reasons for the relapses are under research.
Biological psychiatry or biopsychiatry is an approach to psychiatry that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of the biological function of the nervous system. It is interdisciplinary in its approach and draws on sciences such as neuroscience, psychopharmacology, biochemistry, genetics, epigenetics and physiology to investigate the biological bases of behavior and psychopathology. Biopsychiatry is the branch of medicine which deals with the study of the biological function of the nervous system in mental disorders.
Atypical depression is defined in the DSM IV as depression that shares many of the typical symptoms of major depressive disorder or dysthymia but is characterized by improved mood in response to positive events. In contrast to those with atypical depression, people with melancholic depression generally do not experience an improved mood in response to normally pleasurable events. Atypical depression also often features significant weight gain or an increased appetite, hypersomnia, a heavy sensation in the limbs, and interpersonal rejection sensitivity that results in significant social or occupational impairment.
The emphasis of the treatment of bipolar disorder is on effective management of the long-term course of the illness, which can involve treatment of emergent symptoms. Treatment methods include pharmacological and psychological techniques.
Olanzapine/fluoxetine is a fixed-dose combination medication containing olanzapine (Zyprexa), an atypical antipsychotic, and fluoxetine (Prozac), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). Olanzapine/fluoxetine is primarily used to treat the depressive episodes of bipolar I disorder as well as treatment-resistant depression.
Martin Keller is an American psychiatrist. He is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island.
Bipolar II disorder (BP-II) is a mood disorder on the bipolar spectrum, characterized by at least one episode of hypomania and at least one episode of major depression. Diagnosis for BP-II requires that the individual must never have experienced a full manic episode. Otherwise, one manic episode meets the criteria for bipolar I disorder (BP-I).
Frederick King Goodwin was an American psychiatrist and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center, where he was also director of the Center on Neuroscience, Medical Progress, and Society. He was a specialist in bipolar disorder and recurrent depression.
Joseph Biederman was Chief of the Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD at the Massachusetts General Hospital, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Biederman was Board Certified in General and Child Psychiatry.
Allen J. Frances is an American psychiatrist. He is currently Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. He is best known for serving as chair of the American Psychiatric Association task force overseeing the development and revision of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Frances is the founding editor of two well-known psychiatric journals: the Journal of Personality Disorders and the Journal of Psychiatric Practice.
Certain lithium compounds, also known as lithium salts, are used as psychiatric medication, primarily for bipolar disorder and for major depressive disorder. In lower doses, other salts such as lithium citrate are known as nutritional lithium and have occasionally been used to treat ADHD. Lithium is taken orally.
Ronald Robert Fieve was an American psychiatrist known for his work on the use of lithium in treatment of mood disorders. He has authored four popular science books, "Moodswing", "Bipolar II", "Prozac" and "Bipolar Breakthrough".
Elliot S. Gershon is a professor of psychiatry and human genetics at the University of Chicago in the United States. He served as chair of its department of psychiatry from 1998 to 2004, and chief of the Clinical Neurogenetics branch of the NIMH. He held a NARSAD distinguished investigator grant from 1998 to 2006, and won the 1996 Falcone prize for Outstanding Achievement in Affective Disorders Research.
Lori Altshuler was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and held the Julia S. Gouw Endowed Chair for Mood Disorders. Altshuler was the Director of the UCLA Mood Disorders Research Program and the UCLA Women's Life Center, each being part of the Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA.
Prof. Robert Haim Belmaker, is an Israeli psychiatrist who has had major academic positions in Israeli psychiatry since 1974. He had a formative influence on biological directions in Israeli psychiatry. He was Hoffer-Vickar Professor of Psychiatry at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva Israel until his retirement and is now Emeritus.
Irvin M. Cohen, M.D. (1922–2019) was a psychiatrist specializing in psychopharmacology, recognized for his role in the early use of chlorpromazine in the treatment of schizophrenia, the development of the first benzodiazepine (Librium) treatments in depressive patients, and in the adoption of lithium to treat bipolar disorder.