Mount Sinai Psychiatry: Breakthrough Treatments from Clinical Neuroscience

• Ranks #8 in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants among U.S. psychiatry departments
• In a medical school led by psychiatrists including Dennis Charney (Dean-Medical School), Kenneth Davis (CEO-Medical Center, and Eric Nestler (Chair-Neuroscience)
• Centers of Excellence with cutting-edge treatments for autism; dementia; compulsive and impulsive disorders
• Unparalleled luxurious inpatient care on the Madison East amenities unit
• A leader in educating psychiatrists
• Among Best Psychiatry Departments listed in US News & World Report

Mt. Sinai psychiatry brings the latest breakthrough treatments from the laboratory to the clinic. As the 8th ranked department in terms of NIH  research funding among US departments, we are at the leading edge of neurobiological research and poised to bring the latest advances to our patients. Our department contains Centers of Excellence in major disorders such as autism, dementia, and disorders of impulsivity/compulsivity in which patients can be assured that they will be receiving state-of-the-art care and have access to the newest treatments under development through clinical research studies. In addition, we have a high level of expertise in modern brain imaging techniques and offer our patients a full neurobiological assessment.

Furthermore, this ultramodern care is complemented by a focus on patient comfort. This is illustrated by our amenities unit, Madison East, a unique luxurious inpatient environment where inpatients can receive acute treatment with every imaginable comfort. This locked unit, with expertise in substance abuse treatment, provides a level of comfort and quality of care which is unique and a stark contrast to standard inpatient care.

Research and clinical care are also complemented by training. Our department has recently produced dozens of highly qualified residency graduates many of whom have obtained subspecialty training while at Sinai. In addition, our continuing medical education programs have become one of the largest in New York City, training hundreds of psychiatrists yearly.

Our record in research, clinical care, and teaching led to the department’s current listing in the US News and World Reports among the best US Departments of Psychiatry.

This modern expansive psychiatry department has arisen from a long history of commitment to mental disorders. While the Hospital's psychiatric case records date back to 1852 when the first Jewish immigrants with mental illness were admitted to the Hospital, the real story of the Department of Psychiatry begins 40 years later. In 1893, a young immigrant named Dr. Bernard Sachs was asked to consult on a few cases. Sachs had trained in Vienna and was among the first doctors to share the intriguing new theories of his friend, Dr. Sigmund Freud, with his American colleagues. Sachs was best known for helping describe Tay-Sachs disease, but his family fortune—his brother founded the Goldman-Sachs investment company—allowed for the construction of the Hospital’s first neurology wing, boasting 20 beds, at the turn of the century.

Three years later, the Hospital opened the first private outpatient psychiatric clinic in the city. The director was psychoanalyst Dr. Clarence P. Obendorf, one of the founders of the New York Psychoanalysis Society. Obendorf had trained at Manhattan Psychiatric Hospital, and his mentor, Dr. A. A. Brill, had been among the few who had traveled to Clark University in 1909 to hear Freud speak. Although Freud never returned to America, his ideas were becoming the foundation for psychiatry in New York.

Sachs’ 20-bed neurology department treated only an occasional psychiatric patient (many such patients were still being sent either to jail or to state asylums), and by the time Sachs was heading the neurology department, he had become critical of psychoanalysis.

However, the next neurology chair changed the patient mix. In 1920, Dr. Israel Strauss joined the staff with plans to create a facility for patients with mental illness. These would be patients not sick enough to enter state hospitals but too ill to remain at home. Raising enough money to buy an estate on a hill in Hastings, in Westchester County, Strauss opened a spacious residence for psychiatrically ill patients, complete with gardens and tennis courts. Group therapy was introduced there in 1930.

After a few years, it was clear that the demand for beds was far greater than the 40-bed retreat at Hastings Hillside could offer, so Strauss and Dr. Louis Wender, Hillside’s director, searched for a new home. They finally settled on a 52-acre tract in Queens, and in 1942 opened Hillside Hospital with 28 beds. Years later it became part of Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

Back in Manhattan, Strauss passed the torch to Dr. Israel Wechsler, who decided to expand the role of psychiatry in the neurology department even further. Wechsler brought in Dr. Lawrence Kubie, an analyst trained at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, who had plans to use Mount Sinai as a blueprint for psychiatry in general medicine.

So it was that psychiatrists in the 1930s, roamed the floors of the Hospital, stopping to plumb the souls of cancer and heart patients. Indeed psychiatrists did their rounds at the Hospital, probing, talking, and thinking. Their job was to help patients come to terms with their illnesses and strengthen the bonds with their doctors.

After the war, psychiatrists realized that, for the field to flourish, they needed to be separate from neurology. In 1945, with interest in psychiatry growing nationally, Dr. M. Ralph Kaufman arrived to chair the new department. A ward for psychosomatics was opened, and a fleet of area psychiatrists would make rounds and provide advice on a variety of ills from asthma to headaches to peptic ulcers.

The psychoanalytic approach steamed ahead well into the 1960s. However, when Dr. Marvin Stein took over in 1971, medicine had changed the face of mental illness; doctors were discovering more biologically-based clues as to what was causing the bizarre behaviors and emotions that plagued the people who filled their beds. As a new chairman, Stein had enough money in his budget to hire one full-time academic psychiatrist. For the next 15 years, he added psychiatrist after psychiatrist, slowly building on the new science of the mind and ushering in the age of biological psychiatry, not to supplant, but to join older theories in union.

In 1987, Dr. Kenneth Davis became Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry. His leadership ushered in a period of growth and expansion unparalleled in the Department’s history. Space was upgraded, programs enlarged, and the full-time faculty grew to well over one hundred. Dr. Davis’ guidance led to the creation of a multitude of internationally respected programs that now flourish in schizophrenia, personality disorders, autism, depression, alcoholism, attention deficit disorders, impulsive and compulsive disorders, stress disorders, geriatric psychiatry, memory disorders, and Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the Department became home to a variety of programs in such areas as molecular genetics, neuroimaging, community psychiatry, health services research, and psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy. Most of these programs house ambitious research programs as well. Due to his outstanding accomplishments in the Department of Psychiatry, in 2003 Dr. Kenneth Davis was named President and CEO of The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

In 2003, Dr. Jack Gorman became Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry. Under his leadership, the Department maintained and expanded programs in schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and traumatic stress disorders. In addition, the Department developed an extensive and innovative program in mood and anxiety disorders research. In child and adolescent psychiatry, the Department developed programs in eating disorders, health services research, and traumatic stress disorders. Additionally, the Department developed a stronger affiliation with the New York Psychoanalytical Institute and added core foundation programs in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). Finally, the Department also expanded research in translational neuroscience and neuroimaging.

Between 2006 and 2008, Dr. Eric Hollander, then-Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, introduced a number of initiatives under his leadership. Innovative Centers of Excellence, including Alzheimer’s, Autism, Child Psychiatry, Schizophrenia, and Compulsive/Impulsive and Mood and Anxiety Disorders, were designed to provide a bridge between research and clinical activities. Among clinical programs, a new dual diagnoses amenities unit called Madison East, the only one of its kind in New York City, opened its doors in January 2006. Additionally, in 2007, Dr. Hollander recruited a nationally recognized Vice Chair for Education to revamp the Department’s Medical Education Division focusing on subspecialty training within Psychiatry. Another initiative to create a joint Psychiatry-Neurology Memory and Cognition Program also is underway. Overall, the Department has opened up new opportunities for medical students and residents in research programs. It continues to attract the finest medical students and fellows in psychiatry and child psychiatry as evidenced by their dominance in the roster of national awards.

The Department has expanded consultation and HIV psychiatry, adding new faculty in neuroimaging and genetics, and NIH grant funding continues to rise.