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Welcome from the Chairman

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is acknowledged as one of the leading academic Departments of Psychiatry in the United States, as evidenced by our top 20 ranking in measures of research, clinical care and teaching. The department has shown dramatic growth over the last ten years, particularly in research and clinical service. Long considered superb in both medical student and residency education in psychiatry, the department boasts a member of “Best Doctors in America” and a ranking of 17 (Emory University Hospital) in the 2002 U.S. News and World Report rankings among Best Psychiatric Hospitals. We provide inpatient and/or outpatient care at Emory University Hospital, Grady Memorial Hospital, the Atlanta VA Medical Center, Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital, the Atlanta VA Medical Center, Crawford Long Hospital, the Emory University Autism Center and The Emory Clinic.

In research, the department ranks in the top 20 for National Institute of Health funding and top 10 for total extramural funding (AAMC), with 2002 funding of more than $16 million. The department is the recipient of a Conte Center Grant for the Psychobiology of Major Mental Disorders (Charles B. Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator) and a newly funded Women’s Mental Health Center Grant (Zachary N. Stowe, M.D., Principal Investigator), both from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The vast majority of the 120 faculty are engaged in at least some research activity, as well as clinical service and teaching. Approximately, a dozen faculty are recipients of NIH Research Career Development Awards. Our distinguished faculty are responsible for our very high ranking in research, teaching and clinical service. We are particularly known for excellence in structural and functional brain imaging, stress neurobiology, Mind/Body - Psychoimmunology, Neuropharmacology, drug and alcohol abuse, the interface of medical and psychiatric disorders, Molecular Neurobiology, Mood Disorders, Schizophrenia, Autism, Women’s Mental Health, and Psychotherapy.

At a time when many psychiatry departments remain either psychotherapy dominated or biologically dominated, ours is one of the few with excellence in both. True collaborations exist in clinical care, in research and in teaching, between these two important major forces in American Psychiatry.

In addition to the adult psychiatry training program led by Dr. Crowder, we offer fellowship training in child & adolescent psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, psychopharmacology, forensic psychiatry, addiction psychiatry and community mental health. Several of our senior residents and junior faculty have enrolled in and completed the Masters Degree in Clinical Research offered through the Emory Hospital NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center (GCRC).

The Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute based in the department is thriving, one of the few remaining psychoanalytic training programs based in an academic department with a burgeoning research & training fellowship. Research in psychodynamic psychotherapy, long needed, will be forthcoming.

Our psychology training programs, both the internship and postdoctoral fellowship, are also nationally recognized. Dr. Nadine Kaslow, a nationally renowned investigator in suicide research, is head of psychology at Grady Memorial Hospital.

The departmental faculty have multiple interactions with other departments and centers. The burgeoning molecular and clinical psycho-oncology program at the Winship Cancer Center is led by Andrew H. Miller, M.D. There are extensive interactions of psychiatry faculty with the Departments of Neurology, Pharmacology, Pediatrics, Medicine and Surgery as well as with the Yerkes Primate Center.