The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 38,000 members who are involved in psychiatric practice, research, and academia representing a diverse population of patients in more than 100 countries. The association publishes various journals and pamphlets, as well as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM codifies psychiatric conditions and is used mostly in the United States as a guide for diagnosing mental disorders.
Donald Ewen Cameron was a Scottish-born psychiatrist. He is largely known today for his central role in unethical medical experiments, and development of psychological and medical torture techniques for the Central Intelligence Agency. He served as president of the American Psychiatric Association (1952–1953), Canadian Psychiatric Association (1958–1959), American Psychopathological Association (1963), Society of Biological Psychiatry (1965) and the World Psychiatric Association (1961–1966).
The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City. It is the primary teaching hospital for Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The hospital includes seven campuses located throughout the New York metropolitan area. The hospital's two flagship medical centers, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical Center, are located on opposite sides of Upper Manhattan.
Lisa Dixon is a professor of psychiatry at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the Director of the Division of Behavioral Health Services and Policy Research within the Department of Psychiatry. Her research focuses on improving the quality of care for individuals diagnosed with serious mental illnesses. She directs the Center for Practice Innovations (CPI) at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where she oversees the implementation of evidence-based practices for individuals with serious mental illnesses for the New York State Office of Mental Health. She leads OnTrackNY, a statewide treatment program for adolescents and young adults experiencing their first episode of psychosis.
Herbert Pardes was an American physician, psychiatrist, and the executive vice-chairman of NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital.
Adolf Meyer was a Swiss-born psychiatrist who rose to prominence as the first psychiatrist-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital (1910–1941). He was president of the American Psychiatric Association in 1927–28 and was one of the most influential figures in psychiatry in the first half of the twentieth century. His focus on collecting detailed case histories on patients was one of the most prominent of his contributions. He oversaw the building and development of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital, opened in April 1913, making sure it was suitable for scientific research, training and treatment. Meyer's work at the Phipps Clinic is possibly the most significant aspect of his career.
Lawrence Coleman Kolb was an American psychiatrist who was the New York State Commissioner of Mental Hygiene from 1975 to 1978.
William Alanson White was an American neurologist and psychiatrist.
The Austen Riggs Center is a psychiatric treatment facility located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1913 as the Stockbridge Institute for the Study and Treatment of Psychoneuroses by Austen Fox Riggs. The institution was renamed in his honor on July 21, 1919.
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of deleterious mental conditions. These include various matters related to mood, behaviour, cognition, perceptions, and emotions.
Harold Blauer was an American tennis player who died as a result of injections of 450 mg 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine as part of Project Artichoke, a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation research program run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence.
Harold Alan Pincus is the Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Jeffrey Alan Lieberman is an American psychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia and related psychoses and their associated neuroscience (biology) and pharmacological treatment. He was principal investigator for CATIE, the largest and longest independent study ever funded by the United States National Institute of Mental Health to examine existing pharmacotherapies for schizophrenia. He was president of the American Psychiatric Association from May 2013 to May 2014.
Donald S. Kornfeld (1929-2022) was an American psychiatrist best known for his work on psychiatric issues associated with medical practice. This subspecialty is known as Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry or Psychosomatic Medicine.
Marion Edwena Kenworthy, M.D. (1891-1980), an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, introduced psychiatric and psychoanalytic concepts to the education of social workers and to the field of social work.
Thomas William Salmon, M.D. (1876–1927) was a leader of the mental hygiene movement in the United States in early twentieth century.
George Hughes Kirby (1875–1935) was an American physician and psychiatrist, administrator, and educator, who contributed to the advancement of psychiatry in the United States.
David John Impastato was an American neuropsychiatrist who pioneered the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the United States. A treatment for mental illness initially called "electroshock," ECT was developed in 1937 by Dr. Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini, working in Rome. Impastato has been credited with the earliest documented use of the revolutionary method in North America, administered in early 1940 to a schizophrenic female patient in New York City. Soon after, he and colleague Dr. Renato Almansi completed the first case study of ECT to appear in a U.S. publication. Impastato spent the next four decades refining the technique, gaining recognition as one of its most authoritative spokesmen. He taught, lectured widely and published over fifty articles on his work. He called on ECT practitioners to observe the strictest protocols of patient safety, countered resistance to ECT from both the medical and cultural establishments, and met later challenges to electroconvulsive therapy from developments in psychopharmacology. Impastato would live to see ECT recommended by the American Psychiatric Association for a distinct core of intractable mental disorders. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took longer to respond to the treatment's potential. But in 2016 the FDA drafted guidelines for ECT similar to those of the APA, as well as proposing regulations for treatment with Class II and Class III devices. Though still not free of controversy, electroconvulsive therapy is the treatment of choice for an estimated 100,000 patients a year in the United States.
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".
Joshua A. Gordon is an American neuroscientist and psychiatrist who served as the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from 2016 to June 2024. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and the Director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI).
