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1895
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Proposal for a New York State central pathology laboratory receives legislative approval.
The Pathological Laboratory changes its name to Pathological Institute and it's built in 1896.
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1896
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Dr. Ira Van Gieson appointed as first director of the Pathological Institute. He announces his intention to create a multidisciplinary research institute dedicated to the advancement of knowledge of mental diseases. Van Gieson finds men of extraordinary capacity to staff the Institute.
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1902
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Dr. Adolf Meyer assumes directorship. During his seven years as director he supports research but places major emphasis on clinical observation. He brings about the change in name to New York State Psychiatric Institute. At the close of his career Meyer is regarded as the "Dean of American Psychiatry."
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1906
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The Institute's laboratories are moved to Manhattan State Hospital on Ward's Island.
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1909
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Dr. August Hoch assumes directorship. Hoch is the first to apply psychodynamic theory to psychiatric practice in the United States. As director he fosters Sigmund Freud's concepts into theory and practice at the Institute.
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1913
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Collaboration between J.W. Moore at the Institute and Hideoye Noguchi at the Rockefeller Institute results in discovery of Treponema pallidum in the brains of patients with general paresis, the tertiary form of syphilis.
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1917
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Hoch is succeeded by Dr. George H. Kirby. Kirby facilitates the 1925 union of the Psychiatric Institute with the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.
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1927
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Kirby is appointed chairperson Psychiatry at Columbia, establishing the precedent of a single person holding the positions of Director/Chair.
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1929
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Due to the significant efforts of Drs. Thomas Salmon and C. Floyd Haviland, planning begins for the construction of the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Hospital on a site close to the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the New York Neurological Institute. Kirby plans laboratories for all of the cognate disciplines from neuroanatomy to experimental psychology, and the building is dedicated in 1929. |
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1931
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Dr. Clarence B. Cheney is appointed director and serves until his retirement in 1936. Cheney continues Meyer's work pertaining to the diagnostic process by rewriting the "Outlines for Psychiatric Examination." |
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1936
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Dr. Nolan D.C. Lewis succeeds Cheney and serves as director of the Institute until 1953. He establishes the first full-time departments of genetics and psychopharmacology in the world. Lewis ensures a home for the Columbia Psychoanalytic Clinic in the Institute. |
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1937-1965
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Dr. Franz Kallmann directs the first psychiatric research program in genetics in the United States. His 1946 paper establishes the first evidence of a genetic role in schizophrenia. |
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1940
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Drs. Lothar Kalinowsky and S.E. Barrera are among the first to carry out electroshock treatments for the psychoses in the United States. |
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1949
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Drs. Paul Hoch and Philip Polatin publish a widely known article describing the clinical syndrome of "pseudoneurotic schizophrenia." The work presages the national interest in the so-called "borderline disorders." |
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1954
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Dr. Lawrence C. Kolb is appointed director. Kolb oversees numerous clinical and research advances during his 21 year tenure, the longest of any PI director. |
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1956
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First clinical trials in the United States of phenothiazines (chlorpromazine) in the treatment of schizophrenia. |
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1965
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Establishment at PI of the first lithium clinic in the United States.
Dr. Samuel Sutton and colleagues identify P300 brain wave as measure of cognitive mental activity. Their findings continue to be of core importance to the field. |
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1971-1980
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Dr. Marvin Herz and colleagues demonstrate the merits of brief hospitalization combined with day treatment and community support services, instead of long-term hospitalization. |
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1976
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Kolb leaves PI to become New York State Commissioner of Mental Hygiene. Dr. Sidney Malitz is appointed Acting Director.
Malitz turns over the helm of PI to Dr. Edward Sachar, Chairperson of Psychiatry at Albert Einstein Medical School. Sachar arrives with a reputation as an outstanding teacher and administrator, internationally known for his research in psychoendocrinology. |
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1980
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In December of 1980, tragedy strikes the Institute when Sachar is incapacitated by a stroke and left unable to continue his leadership. Malitz becomes Acting Director for a second time.
After many years of development under leadership of Dr. Robert Spitzer, the official diagnostic manual of American psychiatry, DSM-III, is published. |
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1982
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The formal dedication ceremonies of the new Lawrence C. Kolb Research Laboratories ("annex") are held. With the opening of its new laboratory building, PI becomes one of the largest psychiatric research centers in the world. |
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1983
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Dr. Eric Kandel receives the Lasker Award for basic behavioral and molecular biological studies on memory in the invertebrate, Aplysia. |
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1984
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Dr. Herbert Pardes is appointed as Director of PI after having served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. Under his guidance the Institute experiences a burgeoning of activity using modern genetic techniques and state of the art imaging. |
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1987
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Researchers in Child Psychiatry find that youth who who commit suicide are not more likely to come from broken homes but also that a "copy-cat"phenomenon exists, which leads to teen suicide "clusters."
The HIV Center, headed by Dr. Anke Ehrhardt opens with the largest grant in NIMH history. Research ranges from basic biological studies to developing psychosocial strategies. |
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1989
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A NIMH grant establishes a Center for Childhood Psychiatry, headed by Dr. David Shaffer. It is the first center in the country to focus exclusively on child psychiatric disorders.
While retaining his role as Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, Herbert Pardes leaves the directorship of PI to become Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Columbia. Dr. John Oldham is named Acting Director, and later that year becomes Director of P.I.
Under Dr. Oldham's direction important steps are taken to increase cooperation with the Office of Mental Health and its Commissioner, Richard Surles. An annual Conference in Albany is initiated, in which members of State psychiatric research institutions and invited speakers present updates on selected research topics to mental health clinicians and others in OMH psychiatric facilities. |
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1993
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Dr. Nancy Wexler, from the Department of Medical Genetics leads the Huntington's Collaborative Research Group in completing its decade-long effort to discover and characterize the gene causing Huntington's disease.
The Molecular Genetics Laboratory headed by Dr. Conrad Gilliam completes studies to map and clone the gene for Wilson's disease, a copper metabolism disorder with prominent psychiatric symptoms.
The Department of Genetic Epidemiology, directed by Myrna Weissman organizes a multi-national epidemiology study establishing a world-wide pattern of increasing rates of depression, especially in younger populations. |
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1996
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PI celebrates its Centennial Year. A momentous, year-long festival culminates in a weekend of scientific and social events, topped off with a gala dinner-dance held at the Windows on the World Restaurant atop the World Trade Center. |
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1998
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On May 8, a large crowd gathers at 1051 Riverside Drive, to witness the much awaited opening of the Psychiatric Institute's new building. The new facility, which replaces the original structure, has state-of-the art research, clinical, and educational space, and is dubbed the country's oldest and newest psychiatric research center. |
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2000
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Dr. Eric Kandel wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his work on the molecular basis memory. |
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2002
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John Oldham resigns to become Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Timothy Walsh is named interim director.
Following Walsh's one year of service Drs. Frederick Kass and Fran Cournos serve jointly as interim directors until a new director is appointed. |
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2005
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On January 3, after nearly three years under interim leadership, the Department of Psychiatry and the Psychiatric Institute welcomes its new director Jeffrey Lieberman, M.D., a noted expert in the neurobiology, pharmacology and the treatment of schizophrenia. Lieberman takes the dual role as Director of PI and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry.
The findings of the much-anticipated CATIE (Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness), the longest study ever funded by the NIMH and led by Dr. Lieberman, result in a flurry of media activity in September.
The study, which compares the older antipsychotic drug perphenazine to four atypical antipsychotics, finds that the newer type of medications for schizophrenia are only marginally better than the older, generic drug in terms of effectiveness and tolerability. |
