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The Department of Psychiatry's History Timeline


The Washington University Department of Psychiatry history time line was created in the fall of 2007 by Dr. Eugene Rubin, Vice Chair for Education, with the support of the Department of Psychiatry. This project is intended to help preserve some of our Department’s history as well as provide a longitudinal perspective of the Department for those interested in gaining such a perspective. The Vice Chair for Education and the Head of the Department are responsible for updates and potential expansions of the time line. As is true with this sort of project, there may be some errors despite every attempt for accuracy. Special thanks to Dr. Richard Hudgens for sharing information from his earlier historical reviews of the Department. Also, thanks to Paul Anderson, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Archivist, and Philip Skroska, visual and graphic archives, for their assistance. This time line history is the property of the Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and is protected by copyright laws (October, 2007).
 
1913   *   Dr. Malcolm Bliss is one of the first physicians to lecture on psychiatry at Washington University Medical School.
     
1914   *   During this decade, the executive faculty system is developed at the Medical School.
     
1918   *   Dr. Sidney Schwab becomes Head of the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry. This “department” was a subdepartment of the Department of Medicine.
     
1938   *   Malcolm Bliss Psychopathologic Institute opens as a facility in the St. Louis City hospital system.
     
1938   *   The Department of Neuropsychiatry is born as an independent department at Washington University. Drs. Rioch, Whitehorn, and Jacobsen have leadership roles in the new Department.
     
1941   *   Wallace and Lucille Renard invest in the Department. The Wallace and Lucille K. Renard Professorship in Psychiatry is established.
     
1942   *   Dr. Edwin Gildea becomes the Head of the Department and the first Wallace and Lucille K. Renard Professor in Psychiatry
     
1943   *   A 54-bed neuropsychiatry inpatient unit is opened in McMillan Hospital.
     
1946   *   A psychosomatic medicine clinic called Medicine D Clinic is supervised by Dr. George Saslow.
     
1949   *   Dr. Mandel Cohen arranges for Dr. Eli Robins to meet Dr. Edwin Gildea. Robins becomes a fellow at the Medical School later that year and works with Dr. Oliver Lowry.
     
1950   *   Dr. Samuel Guze becomes the first psychosomatic medicine fellow in the Medicine Clinic D run by Dr. George Saslow.
     
1951   *   Dr. Eli Robins joins the Department as an instructor.
     
1952   *   Dr. George Ulett establishes a departmental group at Malcolm Bliss.
     
1953   *   Jewish Hospital develops a hospital department of neuropsychiatry.
     
1955   *   Dr. George Winokur becomes an assistant professor of psychiatry in the Department and takes charge of the Residency Training Program.
     
1955   *   Dr. George Saslow returns to Boston, and Dr. Samuel Guze is offered the position of assistant professor of psychiatry in psychosomatic medicine.
     
1955   *   Renard Hospital opens. It is named in honor of Wallace and Lucille Renard.
     
1956   *   The Blanche F. Ittleson Professorship in Child Psychiatry is established.
     
1958   *   The William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child Psychiatry is established. Dr. E. James Anthony is recruited to head the Division and become the first Ittleson Professor.
     
1959   *   During the late 1950’s, Drs. Robins, Guze, and Winokur develop a medical model approach to psychiatry.
     
1963   *   Dr. Eli Robins becomes Head of the Department.
     
1964   *   Malcolm Bliss Psychopathologic Institute becomes a state facility, Malcolm Bliss Mental Health Center.
     
1966   *   Dr. Eli Robins is installed as the Wallace and Lucille K. Renard Professor in Psychiatry.
     
1967   *   A federally funded Washington University Alcoholism Research Center is established in the Department.
     
1968   *   Dr. Lee Robins becomes professor of sociology in psychiatry.
     
1971   *   Dr. Samuel Guze is appointed Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs.
     
1971   *   Dr. George Winokur leaves the Department to become chair of psychiatry at the University of Iowa.
     
1971   *   Dr. Richard Hudgens becomes Residency Training Director.
     
1972   *   A federally funded Drug Abuse Research Center is established in the Department.
     
1974   *   The Spencer T. Olin Professorship in Psychiatry is established. Dr. Samuel Guze is installed as the first Olin Professor.
     
1974   *   Dr. Robert Woodruff becomes Residency Training Director
     
1975   *   Dr. Samuel Guze becomes Head of the Department
     
1976   *   Dr. Theodore Reich is appointed Head of the Jewish Hospital Department of Psychiatry.
     
1976   *   Dr. Amos Welner becomes Residency Training Director.
     
1976   *   Dr. Donald W. Goodwin leaves the Department to accept the chair of psychiatry at the University of Kansas.
     
1976   *   The Eli Robins Lectureship is established.
     
1976   *   The Department receives funding for its first training grant, “Research Training in Clinical Sciences.”
     
1977   *   The Edwin Gildea Lectureship is established.
     
1978   *   A federally funded center entitled “Models of Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Family Resemblance in Psychiatry” is established in the Department.
     
1978   *   The Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) is developed.
     
1979   *   Dr. John Helzer becomes Residency Training Director
     
1979   *   The Epidemiological Catchment Area Program (ECA study) is funded.
     
1981   *   A modern psychiatric facility opens in Barnes Hospital, and patients are transferred from Renard Hospital.
     
1981   *   Dr. Felton Earls becomes Director of the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child Psychiatry.
     
1981   *   Dr. Paula Clayton leaves to become chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota.
     
1983   *   The training grant “Psychiatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics” is funded.
     
1983   *   Dr. Felton Earls is installed as the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor in Child Psychiatry
     
1985   *   Dr. John Knesevich becomes Residency Training Director
     
1986   *   The Alex Kaplan Lectureship is established.
     
1986   *   The Gregory B. Couch Professorship in Psychiatry is established.
     
1987   *   The Frank Shobe Lectureship is established.
     
1987   *   Dr. Eugene Rubin becomes Residency Training Director.
     
1987   *   Dr. Abby Wasserman becomes Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training Program
     
1989   *   Dr. C. Robert Cloninger becomes Head of the Department
     
1989   *   The Master of Psychiatric Epidemiology Program is established through the efforts of Dr. Lee Robins, who becomes the first director of the program.
     
1989   *   The Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism is established.
     
1989   *   The Samuel and Mae S. Ludwig Chair in Psychiatry is established at Jewish Hospital. Dr. Theodore Reich, as Head of the Jewish Hospital Department of Psychiatry, is installed as the first Ludwig Chair.
     
1989   *   Dr. John Helzer leaves to become chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of Vermont.
     
1989   *   Hawthorn Children’s Psychiatric Hospital becomes a training site for the child and adolescent psychiatry training program.
     
1990   *   Dr. Richard Mattison is appointed the Director of the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child Psychiatry and is installed as the Blanche F. Ittleson Associate Professor in Child Psychiatry
     
1990   *   The Samuel B. Guze Lectureship is established.
     
1990   *   Dr. John Csernansky is installed as the Gregory B. Couch Associate Professor in Psychiatry.
     
1991   *   The training grant “Biomedical Training in Drug Abuse” is initiated.
     
1991   *   Dr. Lee Robins is named the University Professor of Social Science.
     
1991   *   Dr. C. Robert Cloninger is installed as the Wallace and Lucille K. Renard Professor in Psychiatry.
     
1992   *   Dr. Cloninger officially establishes a Vice-Chair system in the Department. Drs. Theodore Cicero, Richard Hudgens, Theodore Reich, and Eugene Rubin become the first Vice Chairs. Drs. Barry Hong and Charles Zorumski are named Associate Vice Chairs.
     
1993   *   Dr. Samuel Guze becomes Head of the Department for a second time.
     
1994   *   The inpatient psychiatry unit at Jewish Hospital is consolidated with the unit at Barnes Hospital.
     
1994   *   Dr. Joan Luby becomes the Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training Program
     
1995   *   Dr. Richard Todd is appointed Director of the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child Psychiatry and is installed as the Blanche F. Ittleson Associate Professor in Child Psychiatry
     
1996   *   The Eli Robins Award is established.
     
1996   *   Metropolitan St. Louis Psychiatric Center (MPC) opens.
     
1997   *   Dr. Charles Zorumski becomes Head of the Department.
     
1997   *   Dr. John Feighner makes the commitment to establish the John P. Feighner Professorship in Neuropsychopharmacology.
     
1997   *   Drs. Keith Isenberg and Barry Hong become Vice Chairs for Clinical Affairs.
     
1997   *   Dr. Wilson Compton becomes director of the Master in Epidemiology in Psychiatry (MPE) Program.
     
1998   *   The Samuel B. Guze Professorship in Psychiatry is established in honor of Dr. Samuel Guze and his wife, Joy. Dr. Charles Zorumski is installed as the first Samuel B. Guze Professor.
     
1998   *   Dr. Theodore Reich is installed as the Samuel and Mae S. Ludwig Chair in Psychiatry at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
     
1999   *   A training grant is established in “Drug Abuse Comorbidity and Biostatistics.”
     
1999   *   The Midwest Alcoholism Research Center is funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
     
1999   *   Dr. John Olney is installed as the John P. Feighner Professor in Neuropsychopharmacology.
     
2000   *   BJC Behavioral Health (BJC BH) becomes a training site for the Department’s clinical training programs.
     
2000   *   Dr. Andrew Heath is installed as the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Psychiatry
     
2001   *   The Silvio Conte Center for Neuroscience of Mental Disorders is established in the Department with funding from NIMH.
     
2001   *   The Peggy Sansone Memorial Lecture is established.
     
2001   *   The Missouri Family Registry, a highly valued research resource, is brought into the Department by Dr. Andrew Heath and his colleagues.
     
2002   *   The Sansone Family Center for Well-Being is established and funded.
     
2002   *   The Department establishes the Resident Invitational Lectureship
     
2002   *   Dr. Linda Cottler becomes director of the Master in Epidemiology in Psychiatry (MPE) Program.
     
2004   *   The Lee Robins Lectureship is established.
     
2004   *   Dr. Alison Goate is installed as the Samuel and Mae S. Ludwig Chair in Psychiatry at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
     
2005   *   A training grant is funded in “Biomedical Training in Alcohol Research.”
     
2005   *   The Peter Halstead Hudgens Award is established.
     
2005   *   Dr. Anne Glowinski becomes the Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training Program
     
2006   *   A training grant entitled “Indo-US Fogarty Training Program in Behavioral Disorders” is funded.
     
2006   *   The Excellence in Teaching Award is established.
     
2007   *   Dr. Nuri Farber becomes Residency Training Director
     
2007   *   Dr. Michael Jarvis becomes Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs.