David A Kahn, MD

Dr. Kahn is the Diane Goldman Kemper Family Clinical Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center; and attending psychiatrist, New York Presbyterian Hospital and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

He received his B.A. from Haverford College in 1975, completed medical school and internship in medicine at Columbia, and was resident and chief resident in psychiatry at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He then received an NIMH extramural research fellowship at the Psychiatric Institute, where he worked in the area of mood disorders, ECT and regional cerebral blood flow.

After his research fellowship, Dr. Kahn established and led a number of core clinical and educational programs in mental health care at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, including both inpatient and outpatient units. He was vice chair for clinical services from 2006 through 2012. He continues to teach at the medical center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He has served on numerous regional and national advisory committees related to mental health services and quality management. He has published over 50 articles and book chapters related to psychopharmacology focusing on bipolar disorder, issues in combining medication with psychotherapy, and the quantification of expert consensus in the development of practice guidelines. Outside of psychiatry, he played a key role in founding ColumbiaDoctors, the faculty practice organization of the medical center, and served as its vice president from 2005-2011.

In his clinical work, Dr. Kahn is an expert in the psychopharmacology of treatment-resistant mood disorders including depression and bipolar illness. He is especially interested in the balance between medication and psychotherapy in addressing complex symptoms where personality, life goals, family interactions, and biological illness all interact. He maintains a general practice of psychiatry.