Hagop Souren Akiskal is an Armenian-American

Armenian-American

Armenian Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Armenia. During the United States 2000 Census, 385,488 respondents indicated either full or partial Armenian ancestry...

 psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 best known for his research on temperament

Temperament

In psychology, temperament refers to those aspects of an individual's personality, such as introversion or extroversion, that are often regarded as innate rather than learned...

 and bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...

 (manic depression). Born in Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 to Armenian parents, he received his M.D. from the American University of Beirut

American University of Beirut

The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...

 in 1969. He completed his residency training in psychiatry at University of Wisconsin–Madison, and then worked for several years as a clinician and mood disorders researcher at the University of Tennessee, Memphis. He was senior science advisor at NIMH

National Institute of Mental Health

The National Institute of Mental Health is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health...

 from 1990–1994, before moving to the University of California, San Diego

University of California, San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...

, where he is currently professor of psychiatry. Today's leading conceptual thinker in the area of bipolar subtyping, Akiskal is a fastidious researcher and an astute clinical observer. He is a devotee of Emil Kraepelin

Emil Kraepelin

Emil Kraepelin was a German psychiatrist. H.J. Eysenck's Encyclopedia of Psychology identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, as well as of psychopharmacology and psychiatric genetics. Kraepelin believed the chief origin of psychiatric disease to be biological and genetic...

; he believes that the nosologic (classification) pendulum is gradually swinging back towards Kraepelin's original unitary concept of the bipolar spectrum of mood disorders (Lieber, Arnold).

Professor Akiskal rose to prominence with his integrative theory of depression (Science, 1973). Subsequently he established chronic depressions as treatable mood disorders. His research on cyclothymia

Cyclothymia

Cyclothymia is a mood and mental disorder in the bipolar spectrum that causes both hypomanic and depressive episodes. It is defined medically within the bipolar spectrum and consists of recurrent disturbances between sudden hypomania and dysthymic episodes. The diagnosis of cyclothymic disorder is...

 paved the way for understanding the childhood antecedents of bipolarity, and helped in the worldwide renaissance of the temperament field. His focus on subthreshold mood disorders enlarged the boundaries of bipolar disorders. He has received the Gold Medal for Pioneer Research (Society of Biological Psychiatry), the German Anna Monika Prize for Depression, the NARSAD Prize for Affective Disorders, the 2002 Jean Delay Prize for international collaborative research (World Psychiatric Association

World Psychiatric Association

The World Psychiatric Association is an international umbrella organisation of psychiatric societies.-Objectives and goals:Originally created to produce world psychiatric congresses, it has evolved to hold regional meetings, to promote professional education and to set ethical, scientific and...

), as well as the French Jules Baillarger and the Italian Aretaeus Prizes for his research on the bipolar spectrum.

Professor Akiskal has pioneered in the study of outpatient mood disorders. At the University of Tennessee

University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...

, he established mood clinics which have had worldwide appeal because of his philosophy of conducting clinical training and research while delivering high quality care. His clinical expertise ranges from dysthymia to bipolar spectrum disorders, as well as comorbidity, resistant depression, interface of personality with mood disorders, mixed states, anxious bipolarity, and PTSD. In 2003, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor

Ellis Island Medal of Honor

The Ellis Island Medal of Honor was founded by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations and intended to pay homage to the immigrant experience. The medals honor the contribution made to America by immigrants and the legacy they left behind in the successes of their children and grand-children...

"for exceptional national humanitarian service."

He is a highly prolific writer of articles in psychiatry and the editor of several academic journals, including currently serving as a co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Affective Disorders. He has received a number of honors for his work on temperament and bipolar spectrum disorders.

External links

• Faculty profile page at UCSD