Lieberman is or has been a member of the advisory committee for Neuropharmacologic and Psychopharmacologic Drugs of the Food and Drug Administration[citation needed], the Planning Board for the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health[citation needed], the Committee on Research on Psychiatric Treatments of the APA[citation needed], the APA Work Group for the Development of Schizophrenia Treatment Guidelines[citation needed], the Brain Disorders and Clinical Neuroscience Review Committee[citation needed], the National Advisory Mental Health Council of the NIMH[citation needed], and currently[when?] chairs the APA Council of Research.[citation needed].
Research
Lieberman's research has focused on the neurobiology, pharmacology and treatment of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. His work has focused on understanding the natural history and pathophysiology of schizophrenia and the pharmacology and clinical effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs.[citation needed]
Lieberman served as principal investigator for Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).[1] The investigators compared a "first-generation antipsychotic, perphenazine, with several newer drugs in a double-blind study".[5] "Probably the biggest surprise of all was that the older medication produced about as good an effect as the newer medications, three of them anyway, and did not produce neurological side effects at greater rates than any of the other drugs," Lieberman told The New York Times.[6]
On February 21, 2022, Lieberman posted on Twitter about Nyakim Gatwech, an Ethiopian-born American model of South Sudanese descent, stating that "Whether a work of art or freak of nature she's a beautiful sight to behold", leading to criticism from students and colleagues.[7][8] Following the backlash, Lieberman apologized, saying that the content of his post had been racist and sexist and that he was "deeply ashamed" of his “prejudices and stereotypical assumptions”.[9] He subsequently deleted his Twitter account.[10] The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) asked for his resignation as Director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and as of February 22, 2022, Lieberman was no longer affiliated with OMH or the State of New York.[8] Lieberman was suspended as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and removed from his position as Psychiatrist-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC) on February 23, 2022.[7]
Psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee who worked with Lieberman described his Twitter post as part of a pattern of racist and sexist behavior.[8] Elwood Watson, a professor at East Tennessee State University, said the post fit within a centuries-long history of the dehumanization of people of African descent.[9] Lieberman's colleague Carl Hart wrote that racism and sexism need to be better defined as grounds for disciplinary action and that he was uncertain whether Lieberman was racist given his apologies afterwards.[11] In a New York Times op-ed, Columbia professor John McWhorter described Lieberman's actions as "an isolated Tweet" which must be weighed against his entire life and work.[12]
Publications
Lieberman has published over 500 research papers and edited or written ten books, including the textbook Psychiatry (currently in its second edition), Textbook of Schizophrenia, Comprehensive Care of Schizophrenia, Psychiatric Drugs and Ethics in Psychiatric Research: A Resource Manual on Human Subjects Protection.[4]
In 2015, he published the book Shrinks: the Untold Story of Psychiatry (Little Brown). A four-part series, tentatively titled "In Search of Madness: The Untold Story of Mental Illness," based on his book, Shrinks, is scheduled for broadcast on PBS in April 2022.[citation needed]
A new book by Lieberman on schizophrenia was published by Scribner in 2023.[13]
In 2015, in response to journalist Robert Whitaker's view that psychiatry suffers from a conflict of interest with pharmaceutical companies, Lieberman described Whitaker as a "menace to society".[20]
A review of Lieberman's 2015 book Shrinks in The Guardian criticized the book for focusing almost entirely on American psychiatry, for its "triumphalist" narrative, and for failing to discuss Lieberman's financial relationship with pharmaceutical companies.[21]
During the presidency of Donald Trump, Lieberman cited the American Psychiatric Association's Goldwater rule, which forbids psychiatrists from diagnosing public figures without having personally assessed them, as grounds to criticize a book edited by psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee that argued that Trump's mental condition made him dangerous.[22][23][24] Lieberman also published his and seven colleagues' analysis of the president's mental state based on public information; they ruled out a series of diagnoses as unlikely and said incipient dementia was "most plausible", but concluded that Trump would have to allow for a full medical examination for any conclusions to be drawn.[25] Lee argued that Lieberman was hypocritical for condemning her book but publishing his own analysis.[26] Joshua Kendall also criticized Lieberman's stance and said it was inconsistent with Lieberman having written his Vice article.[27]
Antipsychotics, also known as neuroleptics, are a class of psychotropic medication primarily used to manage psychosis, principally in schizophrenia but also in a range of other psychotic disorders. They are also the mainstay together with mood stabilizers in the treatment of bipolar disorder.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common language and standard criteria. It is the main book for the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders in the United States and is considered one of the principal guides of psychiatry, along with the ICD, CCMD, and the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual. However, not all providers rely on the DSM-5 as a guide, since the ICD's mental disorder diagnoses are used around the world and scientific studies often measure changes in symptom scale scores rather than changes in DSM-5 criteria to determine the real-world effects of mental health interventions.
Anti-psychiatry, sometimes spelled antipsychiatry, is a movement based on the view that psychiatric treatment is often more damaging than helpful to patients, highlighting controversies about psychiatry. Objections include the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis, the questionable effectiveness and harm associated with psychiatric medications, the failure of psychiatry to demonstrate any disease treatment mechanism for psychiatric medication effects, and legal concerns about equal human rights and civil freedom being nullified by the presence of diagnosis. Historically critiques of psychiatry came to light after focus on the extreme harms associated with electroconvulsive treatment or insulin shock therapy. The term "anti-psychiatry" is in dispute and often used to dismiss all critics of psychiatry, many of whom agree that a specialized role of helper for people in emotional distress may at times be appropriate, and allow for individual choice around treatment decisions.
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.
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental disorder characterized by abnormal thought processes and an unstable mood. This diagnosis requires symptoms of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder: either bipolar disorder or depression. The main criterion is the presence of psychotic symptoms for at least two weeks without any mood symptoms. Schizoaffective disorder can often be misdiagnosed when the correct diagnosis may be psychotic depression, bipolar I disorder, schizophreniform disorder, or schizophrenia. This is a problem as treatment and prognosis differ greatly for most of these diagnoses.
Edwin Fuller Torrey, is an American psychiatrist and schizophrenia researcher. He is associate director of research at the Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI) and founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC), a nonprofit organization whose principal activity is promoting the passage and implementation of outpatient commitment laws and civil commitment laws and standards in individual states that allow people diagnosed with mental illness to be forcibly committed and medicated easily throughout the United States.
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.
The Soteria model is a milieu-therapeutic approach developed to treat acute schizophrenia, usually implemented in Soteria houses.
The biopsychiatry controversy is a dispute over which viewpoint should predominate and form a basis of psychiatric theory and practice. The debate is a criticism of a claimed strict biological view of psychiatric thinking. Its critics include disparate groups such as the antipsychiatry movement and some academics.
Ronald O. Rieder is an American psychiatrist who served as Vice Chair for Education and Director of the Residency Training Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Dr. His interests have been in the areas of schizophrenia, genetics and psychiatric education. Prior to joining Mount Sinai's faculty as a tenured professor in 2007, he served for several decades as the residency training director at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons. He was President of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training in 1992-1993 and in 2007 received the Vestermark Award from the American Psychiatric Association, that organization's highest award for psychiatric education. He is also the author of approximately sixty original papers in the fields of psychiatry and psychiatric education.
Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America is a book by Robert Whitaker published in 2010 by Crown. Whitaker asks why the number of Americans who receive government disability for mental illness approximately doubled since 1987.
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.
The Goldwater rule is Section 7 in the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Principles of Medical Ethics, which states that psychiatrists have a responsibility to participate in activities contributing to the improvement of the community and the betterment of public health, but they should not give a professional opinion about public figures whom they have not examined in person, and from whom they have not obtained consent to discuss their mental health in public statements. It is named after former US Senator and 1964 presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.
Henry Brill was an American psychiatrist and educator. A native of Bridgeport, Connecticut, he earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Yale University. After receiving his M.D. in 1932, he began a career in the New York state psychiatric system, culminating in the directorship of Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, NY from 1958 to 1976. At its height in the mid-1950s, Pilgrim was the largest mental institution in the world, with a census of 13,875 patients. Brill also served as Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene from 1959 to 1964.
Dilip V. Jeste is an American geriatric neuropsychiatrist, who specializes in successful aging as well as schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders in older adults. He was senior associate dean for healthy aging and senior care, distinguished professor of psychiatry and neurosciences, Estelle and Edgar Levi Memorial Chair in Aging, director of the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, and co-director of the IBM-UCSD Artificial Intelligence Center for Healthy Living at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. after serving for 36 years, he retired from UC San Diego on July 1, 2022.
Joanna Moncrieff is a British psychiatrist and academic. She is Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry at University College London and a leading figure in the Critical Psychiatry Network. She is a prominent critic of the modern 'psychopharmacological' model of mental disorder and drug treatment, and the role of the pharmaceutical industry. She has written papers, books and blogs on the use and over-use of drug treatment for mental health problems, the mechanism of action of psychiatric drugs, their subjective and psychoactive effects, the history of drug treatment, and the evidence for its benefits and harms. She also writes on the history and politics of psychiatry more generally. Her best known books are The Myth of the Chemical Cure and The Bitterest Pills.
Psychiatry is, and has historically been, viewed as controversial by those under its care, as well as sociologists and psychiatrists themselves. There are a variety of reasons cited for this controversy, including the subjectivity of diagnosis, the use of diagnosis and treatment for social and political control including detaining citizens and treating them without consent, the side effects of treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy, antipsychotics and historical procedures like the lobotomy and other forms of psychosurgery or insulin shock therapy, and the history of racism within the profession in the United States.
Bandy Xenobia Lee is an American psychiatrist whose scholarly work includes the writing of a comprehensive textbook on violence. She is a specialist in public health approaches to violence prevention who consulted with the World Health Organization and initiated reforms at New York's Rikers Island Correctional Facility. She helped draft the United Nations chapter on "Violence Against Children," leads a project group for the World Health Organization's Violence Prevention Alliance, and has contributed to prison reform in the United States and around the world. She taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School from 2003 through 2020.
Thara Rangaswamy is a psychiatrist in India, the co-founder of an NGO called SCARF based in Chennai, India. She is a researcher in schizophrenia and community mental health. In 2020, she received the SIRS Outstanding Clinical and Community Research Award of SIRS, an apex body for work on schizophrenia in Florence, Italy.
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