Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, M.D.

President and Executive Director, Founding Member

- Chief of Pyschiatric Service, Massachusetts General Hospital - Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Dr. Rosenbaum received his undergraduate degree from Yale College and his medical degree from the Yale University School of Medicine. He pursued his psychiatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital where he was Chief Resident of the Psychiatric Consultation Service. Dr. Rosenbaum directs the Outpatient Psychiatry Division of the Massachusetts General Hospital, a site of over 70,000 annual visits and comprising 10 clinical and clinical research units. This setting is world renowned as both a clinical and clinical research center. The annual psychopharmacology course offered by this group draws more than 850 colleagues from around the country to Boston each fall. Dr. Rosenbaum has authored more than 300 original articles and reviews, published 9 books, and serves on 11 editorial boards of professional journals or newsletters. He is a founding member and on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology and edits the organization's newsletter, "Progress Notes." His research addresses etiology, psychopathology, course, and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders.

Gary S. Sachs, M.D.

Vice President, Founding Member

Email Dr. Sachs

- Founder and Director of the Harvard Bipolar Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. - Director of the STEP for Bipolar Disorders National Program - Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland Medical School, Dr. Sachs completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. His areas of academic interest include psychopharmacology, bipolar mood disorder, and development of practice guidelines for the treatment of bipolar mood disorder

Maurizio Fava, M.D.

Treasurer, Founding Member

- Director of the MGH Depression Clinical and Research Program - Co-PI, STAR-D grant - Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Dr. Fava obtained his medical degree from the University of Padua School of Medicine and completed a residency training in endocrinology at the same university. He then moved to the United States and completed a residency training in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, Massachusetts. After working as a staff psychiatrist in the Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit for two years, he has been Director of the Depression Research Program since 1990 at the same hospital. Dr. Fava has also been successful in obtaining funding for his program, as principal or co-principal investigator, from both the National Institute of Health and industry for a total of more than $14,000,000 in the past ten years. Dr. Fava has authored or co-authored more that 140 original articles published or in press in refereed medical journals with international circulation. He has also edited two books, and he has published more than 40 chapters and 200 abstracts. He has received several awards during his career and is on the editorial board of three international medical journals. His major research interests have been the development of effective short-term and long-term strategies in the treatment of depression and depressive subtypes. In particular, Dr. Fava has conducted a number of clinical investigations on a particular depressive subtype, characterized by the presence of anger attacks and high levels of irritability and hostility. His contributions in this area have been significant. A number of other investigators are using some of the instruments that he has developed for the assessment of this clinical population. Dr. Fava is also a well-known national and international speaker, having given more than 200 presentations at national and international meetings during his career in psychiatry. He is currently an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Lee Cohen, M.D.

Founding Member

- Director of the MGH Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry Program - Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Dr. Cohen's Perinatal Psychiatry Program is a women's mental health center dedicated to the evaluation and treatment of psychiatric disorders associated with female reproductive function. Designed originally as a consultation service for women presenting with concerns regarding use of psychotropic drugs during pregnancy, the program has expanded to include evaluation and research in areas ranging from premenstrual dysphoric disorder to menopausal mood and anxiety syndromes. Dr. Cohen is a past recipient of the National Institute of Mental Health Faculty Scholar Award and a Young Investigator Award from the National Association of Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). He was recently awarded an Independent Investigator Award from NARSAD to study the course of bipolar illness in pregnancy and the postpartum period. Dr. Cohen is a recent recipient of the Outstanding Psychiatrist Award for Research from the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society. He is a principal investigator at a multi-site, five year federally funded study in which the relationship between female reproductive function and risk for mood disorder is being evaluated. He is also recently funded by the NIMH to evaluate the risk and predictors of relapse of depression during pregnancy. He has published extensively in the area of women's mental health with a variety of research articles; he has also contributed to various textbooks in the area of perinatal and reproductive psychiatry.

Michael Otto, Ph.D.

Founding Member

- Director of the Cognitive-Behavior Therapy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) - Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School Michael W. Otto, Ph.D. is Director of the Cognitive-Behavior Therapy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Otto specializes in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of anxiety and mood disorders, and has developed clinical-research programs at MGH for the treatment of panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, social phobia, bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders, substance dependence, and medication discontinuation in patients with panic disorder. Dr. Otto's research activities are closely tied to his clinical interests and target investigations of the etiology and treatment of anxiety, affective, and substance-use disorders. Of particular interest to Dr. Otto is the development and testing of new treatments, including the combination of pharmacologic and cognitive-behavioral strategies for treatment-refractory and substance abusing patients, and the modification of treatment packages for novel populations (e.g., Cambodian refugees). He has published over 150 articles, book chapters, and books spanning these research interests. His books include the edited volumes, Challenges in Clinical Practice: Pharmacologic and Psychosocial Strategies, and Social Phobia: Research and Practice, and the Stopping Anxiety Medication treatment manuals for patients and therapists. Dr. Otto serves as a section editor for Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, and on the editorial boards of Behavior Research and Therapy, Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, Journal Watch in Psychiatry, and Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. He also serves on the scientific advisory board for the Anxiety Disorders Association of America and the governing board for the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy. Dr. Otto is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, directs fellowship and internship training in cognitive-behavior therapy at MGH, and has been a regular provider of continuing education and continuing medical education workshops across the United States and abroad.

Mark Pollack, M.D.

Founding Member

- Director of the Anxiety Disorders Program at Massachusetts General Hospital - Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Dr. Pollack received his M.D. in 1982 from New Jersey Medical School, and completed residency and fellowship training in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. He has received a Faculty Scholar Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH 19600) to study the longitudinal course of panic disorder, and has received funding from the National Institute of Drug Abuse to study the application of cognitive-behavioral interventions for benzodiazepine discontinuation in panic disorder patients (NIDA: R10 DA 09692) and the reduction of illicit drug use in drug abusers (NIDA: R01 DA 10040). He has published over 150 articles, reviews and chapters, and is co-editor of the books "Challenges in Clinical Practice: Pharmacologic and Psychosocial Strategies" and "Panic Disorder and Its Treatment," as well as the "Progress Notes" of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology. Dr. Pollack serves on numerous editorial and advisory boards, as well as the Scientific Advisory Board of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. His areas of clinical and research interest include the acute and long-term course and treatment of patients with anxiety disorders, development of novel pharmacologic agents for mood and anxiety disorders, uses of combined cognitive-behavioral and pharmacologic therapies for treatment refractory patients, and the presentation and treatment of anxiety in the medical setting.

Jordan Smoller, M.D.

Founding Member

- Director of the Psychiatric Genetics Program in Mood and Anxiety Disorders in the Outpatient Psychiatry Division of the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital - Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Dr. Smoller received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed residency training in psychiatry at McLean Hospital and received a Master's degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Smoller is column editor on Molecular Genetics for the Harvard Review of Psychiatry and his current research activities include studies of genetic contributions to bipolar disorder, major depression, and panic and phobic anxiety disorders. The Genetics Program at MGH headed by Dr. Smiller is devoted to research on familial and genetic htmlects of mood and anxiety disorders

Andrew Nierenberg , M.D

- Associate Director of the Depression Clinical and Reserach Program - Medical Director of Bipolar Programs - Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Dr. Andrew Nierenberg graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, NewYork. He did his residency in psychiatry at New York University/Bellevue Hospital in New York City, where he became a chief resident, and then went on as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale University to study clinical epidemiology. He continued his trek north to join the faculty at Harvard, and then to direct the Affective Disorders Outpatient Unit at McLean Hospital. Dr. Nierenberg then joined the Psychopharmacology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 1992 where he is currently Associate Director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Medical Director of the Bipolar Programs, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. His primary interests are treatment resistant depression, management of antidepressant side effects, the longitudinal course of affective disorders, and pharmacoepidemiology.

return to top of the page

Mood and Anxiety Disorders Institute
50 Staniford Street, 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02114
617-724-6748 fax: 617-726-6768
email: info@mghmadi.org