HTS: Alan J. Gelenberg, M.D.

Since 1987 Dr. Gelenberg has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry,the world’s most widely read peer-reviewed psychiatry journal. He is also founding author of Biological Therapies in Psychiatry Newsletter, in its 31st year. For 18 years, he was Professor and Head of the University of Arizona’s Department of Psychiatry, where he is now Professor Emeritus. Previously, Dr. Gelenberg was on the faculty of Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital for 19 years. He was also on the M.I.T.faculty.

Dr. Gelenberg has been lead author of manuscripts in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, and Journal of the AMA and has authored over 200 scientific articles, editorials, and book chapters. He chairs the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) workgroup on Treatment Guidelines for Major Depressive Disorder, worked with a joint APA/AMA taskforce on similar guidelines for primary care, and currently is on a committee advising the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on depression. He helped develop the ASEX scale to track sexual side effects of antidepressants and is now working on it and other means to improve clinical trial methods.

A native of Philadelphia, Alan Gelenberg received an A.B. from Columbia University and an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. After a year's internship in internal medicine, he was a resident in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps for six years.

Often a guest lecturer and visiting professor throughout the world, Dr. Gelenberg has sat on several committees of the National Institute of Mental Health, is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the APA, former chair of its Committee on Research on Psychiatric Treatments, past President of the West Coast College of Biological Psychiatry, and a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He is on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology, the Professional Advisory Council of the Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome Information Service, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance.

Listed in The Best Doctors in America and America’s Top Doctors, he received the 1997 Exemplary Psychiatrist Award of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and two teaching awards at his college.

Dr. Gelenberg helped re-design public mental-health services in Southern Arizona, helped secure county bonds for $66 million to build new psychiatric facilities, was a founder of Arizona’s Institute for Mental Health Research, and for four years chaired his college’s Council of Clinical Department Heads and sat on the practice plan’s board.