Coping with Anxiety and Depression
in Uncertain Times

Dennis S. Charney, M.D. is chief of the Mood and Anxiety Disorder Research Program and Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. This program, located in the NIMH intramural research division, is the nation's largest research group devoted to identifying the etiology of these disorders and discovering more effective treatments.

Prior to coming to NIMH in September 2000, Dr. Charney was professor of psychiatry and deputy chair of Academic and Scientific Affairs at the Yale University School of Medicine. One of the nation's foremost investigators in the neurobiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, he has made fundamental contributions to understanding neural circuits, neurochemistry and functional neuroanatomy of the regulation of mood and anxiety.

Additionally, Dr. Charney's research group focuses on the discovery of novel and more effective treatments. Dr. Charney has been a highly successful extramural NIMH and Veteran Affairs (VA) grantee and has extensive experience directing large multidisciplinary research teams. He was principal investigator of the VA National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and the NIMH Yale Mental Health Clinical Research Center. Dr. Charney has served on numerous national committees advancing the understanding of the causes and treatments of psychiatric disorders, including the Food and Drug Administration's Psychopharmacologic Drug Advisory Committee.

Dr. Charney chaired the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Institute of Mental Health and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA). He currently chairs the National Depressive and Manic Depression Association (NDMDA) Scientific Advisory Board, and is president-elect of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Association for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD).

Dr. Charney has published over 500 original papers and chapters. He has edited several major textbooks including Neurobiology of Mental Illness, Textbook of Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Neuropharmacology: A Fifth Generation of Progress. He is also the editor of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

The Institute of Scientific Information listed Dr. Charney among the top three most highly cited authors of psychiatric research in the decade, 1990–2000. Since 1992, Dr. Charney has been listed in every edition of the Best Doctors in America. His work has been recognized with numerous awards including the Efron Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Anna Monika Foundation Award for Research in affective disorders, the Edward J. Sacher Award from Columbia University, the Edward A. Strecker Award from Pennsylvania Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania, the Gerald L. Klerman Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association (NDMDA), the American Psychiatric Association Award for Research and the 2002 Distinguished Alumni Award from Pennsylvania State University School of Medicine.

In 2000, Dr. Charney was elected to the Institute of Medicine.

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