Program Descriptions

Over 90 faculty at the VCU Health System, the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veteran’s Administration Medical Center and the INOVA Healthcare System work to achieve our goal to be a world leader in understanding and treating mental illness.   An additional 125 clinical faculty volunteer as major educational allies.  While some may think our goal is ambitious, it is hopeful, realistic and necessary.

The VCU Department of Psychiatry was founded in the 1930’s, as one of the first general hospital based departments of Psychiatry.  The Department’s mission includes teaching, research, clinical care, community service and public education.  Developing new scientific knowledge to improve the health of our citizens is critical.  We believe the future of medicine is brain science and psychiatry is brain science.

The Department has a vigorous involvement in the activities of the VCU Health Systems, with faculty members on the Boards and Committees of the Health System and MCV Physicians, the group practice.  We work very closely with our non-psychiatric colleagues to achieve administrative, clinical, educational and research objectives.  We love partners and work hard to be good partners.

We have many special programs which serve the public and strengthen education and/or research: 

Center for Human-Animal Interaction:  Housed in the Department of Psychiatry, The Center for Human-Animal Interaction (CHAI) was established in the VCU School of Medicine in June 2001, the first center of its kind to be established in a school of medicine in the nation. The mission of the Center is improved health and well-being through human-animal interaction. As an interdisciplinary center, CHAI provides a structure for faculty, students, and staff from both campuses to collaborate on research, educational, and clinical activities that support its mission.   CHAI is led by its founder, Dr. Sandra Barker, the Bill Balaban Endowed Chair of Human Animal Interaction. 

Clinical Services: The Department offers excellent services for individuals needing ambulatory evaluation and treatment as well as inpatient services for patients of all ages.  Our Emergency Psychiatry service sees over 2,500 patients per year.  Our Inpatient Service has subspecialty teams for persons with depression, schizophrenia, medical and psychiatry issues, acute quick care and geriatric psychiatry.  Electroconvulsive and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation are offered.   Almost 3,500 patients are seen in Adult and Child Inpatient Psychiatry at MCV, VTCC and the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center.  Our faculty see over 20,000 additional out patient visits annually at Community Mental Health Centers and over 18,000 visits at VCU and the VAMC.  Our Division of Consultation/Liaison Psychiatry sees over 1,200 patients on non-psychiatric services at MCVH. 

Commonwealth Institute for Child and Family Studies: Established in 1989, the CICFS serves as the research and community education arm of the Division for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  Research ranges from laboratory studies aimed at enhancing understanding of genetic influences on causes, prevention and treatment of child mental disorders to treatment outcome and services research.  One of our faculty, Dr. Roxann Roberson-Nay currently has a five-year K-Award from the NIH to study anxiety disorders in children.  CICFS also puts on an annual Spring Forum (48th year) and a fall conference highlighting cutting edge work in the field of child mental health. These educational programs are directed at mental health professionals, other child-serving personnel, families of children with mental health challenges and interested citizens.  The current fall program presenter is Ross Greene, Ph.D., who has developed innovative strategies for dealing with challenging behavior in children.

Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry:  Our Division is composed of psychiatrists and psychologists with special expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric conditions in medically ill patients, e.g. patients with cardiac disease, HIV/AIDS, chronic pain and those undergoing transplantation.  Working closely with physicians in primary care and other specialties, we diagnose and treat patients with co-occurring psychiatric and general medical illnesses complicating each other’s management, as well as patients with psychiatric disorders which are the direct consequence of a primary medical condition or its treatment, such as medication-induced depression, delirium or dementia. We coordinate our efforts with, and advise other physicians and health care providers, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Our psychiatrists and psychologists also work to promote positive health behaviors in patients including improved adherence with medical treatment. We have developed nationally accredited training programs, a post-residency fellowship for psychiatrists, and a postdoctoral fellowship for psychologists. Our faculty regularly contribute to the scientific literature concerning clinical issues at the interface between mental health and medical illness. 

Employee Assistance Program: The Department offers special easy access confidential evaluation services to the employees of VCU Health System.

Endowment: A leading authority on mental health in Virginia, the Department of Psychiatry at the VCU Medical Center is vital to all Virginians.  It is the place where knowledge of biological, psychological, social and cultural factors in the development and maintenance of mental and physical health come together. We fully integrate new knowledge by generating it, teaching it and using it in clinical practice.  The Department is one of Virginia’s most valuable resources for mental health research, education and treatment.  Our vision is to conquer mental illness.  We are on the brink of making enormous gains in our ability to alleviate suffering, but competition for funding has increased.  In order for the Department to continue be a leader, funding to support the strong recruitment and retention of researchers, educators and clinicians is essential.  In order to help, contact Rupa Murthy at rsmurthy@vcu.edu or call 804-828-3878. 

We direct the Virginia Health Practitioner’s Monitoring Program.  This program’s objectives are to first ensure that our citizens are safe when they receive health care.  We assure that impaired health professionals receive appropriate treatment and are usually able to return to monitored effective practice.  Eighty seven percent (87%) of the doctors and almost eighty percent (80%) of nurses who remain in our program return to safe, monitored practice.

Faison School: The Faison School was established in 1998 through a contribution by Mr. Alan Kirshner and Ms. Flo Guzman, whose granddaughter has autism.  A partnership between the Department of Psychiatry and the Kirshner Family was established for the purpose of creating a center of excellence in autism with a three-pronged mission of providing service, conducting research and developing training related to autism.  The Faison School, initially established as a small pilot effort to serve young children with autism has grown to a large program currently serving nearly 90 children, ages 2-22 in a new, state of the art facility. The program uses an Applied Behavior Analysis approach, based on empirical research.  Several training programs have been developed including working with local school systems to institute programs for children with autism in their home school systems.  We are currently planning interdisciplinary research involving faculty from the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics and other divisions of the Department of Psychiatry.

Health Psychology:  The specialty of clinical health psychology applies scientific knowledge of the interrelationships among behavioral, emotional, cognitive, social and biological components in health and disease to the promotion and maintenance of health; the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of illness and disability; and the improvement of the health care system. The distinct focus of Clinical Health Psychology is on physical health problems. The specialty is dedicated to the development of knowledge regarding the interface between behavior and health, and to the delivery of high quality services based on that knowledge to individuals, families and health care systems.

The Honors Program in Psychiatry:  The Honors Program recognizes students who have achieved unusual merit in the study of Psychiatry by virtue of extraordinary accomplishment in education, scholarship service and teaching.  It also affords students the opportunity to study Psychiatry at a level deeper than usual curriculum allows and encourages them to pursue a career in Psychiatry.  Dr. Sherif Meguid is the Director of the program and currently there are 12 medical students enrolled.

Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center: The Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center provides high quality, evidenced based therapies to the veteran population.  With a projected workload increase of 95% within the next three years, with five year projections showing as much as a 300% in some Mental Health services for returning veterans, the Mental Health Service is implementing programs to bring mental health care to the veterans.  These programs include the integration and co-location of Mental Health into the Primary Care clinical areas, community based services including Compensated Work Therapy, housing and day programs (Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center), homeless programs, Mental Health Intensive Case Management and Rural Health.  Continued substance abuse rehabilitative programs including opiate agonist therapy and opening of a Substance Abuse Residential Rehabilitation & Treatment Program (SARRTP) in the near future.  McGuire VAMC continues to be a leader and strong supporter in both education and research programs.  VCU Medical Students and Psychiatry Residents receive training at McGuire VAMC.

INOVA: As an integral part of the VCU Psychiatric Department, the INOVA campus in Fairfax, Virginia, offers electives in Psychiatry with a focus upon inpatient, addictive services and Psychosomatic Medicine.  This complements our required clerkship in Psychiatry.  It has a long tradition of focusing upon the interface between Psychiatry and Medicine which is now formally labeled Psychosomatic Medicine.  The Department has eight full time psychiatrists in the Hospital Division; one full time child psychiatrist; and three part time psychiatrists in the outpatient programs.  The Department has a 34 bed psychiatric unit; an Addiction Treatment Program with 20 beds and multiple outpatient clinics; a partial psychiatric program; and an outpatient psychiatric clinic.  The faculty includes two with subspecialty boards in Psychosomatic Medicine that oversee a Psychosomatic Medicine fellowship that is now in its fourth decade of existence.  The INOVA Psychosomatic Program has produced over 300 publications and textbook chapters.  The inpatient unit treats over 1600 patients a years and over 750 formal psychiatric consultations are performed.  VCU medical students rotate through the inpatient unit, the addiction program, outpatient settings and the psychosomatic service.   Faculty have held leadership positions in the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine; the American Psychosomatic Society; and the American Psychiatric Association.  This program is chaired by Dr. Thomas Wise, VCU Professor of Psychiatry and internationally recognized scholar.

Inpatient Psychiatry:  The division operates 50 acute beds for seven specialty programs including geriatric psychiatry, medical psychiatry, mood disorders, schizophrenia, and crisis stabilization. State of the art psychopharmacology and brain stimulation therapies are offered, including Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy (TMS). Referrals are received from all of Central Virginia and beyond. More than 2100 patients are served annually through these programs.  The division serves as a core training site for M-II through M-IV medical students, nursing students and graduate/post graduate trainees in social work and pharmacy. About 50 M-III students rotate through the inpatient units at VCU Medical Center. Faculty from this division also provide consultative emergency psychiatric services to the department of emergency medicine (about 2400 consults annually), community geriatric psychiatry services through nursing home visits and a community clinic on Parham Road (4500 visits annually), and community mental health services through Richmond Behavior Health Authority clinics, the Rubicon, Inc, and the Daily Planet Clinics (about 1500 patients annually). The division conducts research in biological psychiatry, psychopharmacology, brain imaging, geriatric psychiatry and animal assisted activities. A multi-center, industry sponsored study of deep brain stimulation for treatment refractory depression is expected to commence in January 2010.

Medical Student Education:  We teach required courses for all students in the first and second years of medical school.  Students learn normal psychological development and psychopathology in these courses. Behavioral science scores on the USMLE usually top MCV scores for all subjects and have been above the national average for decades.  A six week clerkship in the third year gives students an excellent exposure to the clinical practice of psychiatry.  Student ratings of our courses are excellent.  “Team-based teaching” is a significant part of our approach as is use of simulated patients.  VCU is currently designing a longitudinal psycho-social track to assure the increasing competence of all students who require excellent psychiatric diagnostic and interviewing skills regardless of their specialty. Challenging electives are offered in a variety of settings.

The Mood Disorders Institute: Since 1992, the VCU Mood Disorders Institute has been the site of over 70 industry and government-sponsored clinical trials, studying several forms of mood and anxiety disorders, as well as women’s mental health concerns.  Our goal is to foster scientific research that leads to advances in the treatment of individuals with mood and anxiety disorders, helping them to lead fulfilling and productive lives. The findings gained from these studies have resulted in the development of effective treatments that you now see in today’s marketplace. 

The Problem Gambling Clinic: The Department of Psychiatry has developed a proposal describing how the Commonwealth can address the issues of problem gambling.  We submitted a comprehensive, long-term plan for preventing and treating problem gambling while also taking immediate steps to determine the prevalence of this problem in Virginia, raise public awareness about the risks of excessive gambling, train mental health professionals on evidence-based approaches to treating individuals with problem gambling and develop a pilot clinic using these approaches to treat individuals seeking help for gambling disorders.  Research of addictive disorders is critical.

Psychiatry Internships and Fellowships: Fellowships are offered in Serious Mental Illness, Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  We hope to have fellowships in Forensic and Addictions Psychiatry in the near future.

Psychology:  The Psychology Division provides assessment and treatment of children and adults, in consultation with medical services.  We have expertise in health psychology, neuropsychology, forensics and anxiety disorders.  We teach medical residents, including psychotherapy supervision and didactics in neuropsychiatry and we research liver disease and dementia. 

Residency Education:  Our four year residency has an average of ten positions per year.  The program has a long history of filling in the match with excellent, dedicated physicians.  Over the course of four years, almost 80 separate courses are taught with syllabi for each course.  Residents are actively involved in their own education and Chief Residents are voting members of the Residency Education and Training Committee.  We also work collaboratively with Howard University in Residency Education. After residency, our trainees go on to a variety of meaningful fellowships and jobs.  They report that their training exceptionally prepared them to care for their patients and meet the demands of their jobs.  Our American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology pass rates for first time takers is at the national average.

Scholarly activities:  Almost 300 peer-reviewed papers and two to four books are published annually by faculty of the Department.  Major findings from the department include discovery of the Dysbinden gene and other contributions to the psychiatric literature.

Social Work in Psychiatry:  The Department of Psychiatry social workers are comprised of a dedicated group of master’s level and licensed clinical social workers who are proficient in conducting strengths-based interviews, completing biopsychosocial assessments, creating treatment plans, and providing individual and family support and education.  Our social workers provide comprehensive discharge services for every patient that is admitted to our psychiatry and crisis stabilization units.  Working directly with the patients, interdisciplinary teams, community partners, and the patients’ families, the social workers strive for a safe and successful discharge for every patient.

The VCU Institute for Women’s Health: The Institute for Women’s Health is the center of the university’s collective efforts in women’s health and a national model of excellence.  The mission of the IWH is to promote standards of excellence in women’s health care, advance cutting-edge research, foster community engagement and collaboration, enhance women’s leadership and provide professional education toward the goal of improving the health of women across the lifespan.  The IWH is headed by Dr. Susan Kornstein, Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology and co-author of the first textbook on Women’s Mental Health. 

The VCU Student Psychiatric Society: The Student Psychiatric Society is one of the more active student groups at MCV. The mission of the group is to provide education, mentorship and support for medical students interested in learning about mental illness and/or becoming a psychiatrist. Our group hosts well attended lunchtime lectures covering topics ranging from P.T.S.D. to substance abuse to psychiatric crises in the emergency room.  We connect M1 and M2 students to educational opportunities within the department. Our community service has included collecting books for children at the VTCC and distributing information in the hospital about depression and alcohol abuse.  There are currently 29 members.

The VCU Summer Institute in Psychiatry:  The Summer Institute in Psychiatry for Medical Students provides medical students from across America with an exciting and intensive experience in Psychiatry, covering topics that are of interest to trainees but may not be presented in a traditional curriculum.  The well-attended Institute consists of seminars and clinical experiences provided by our nationally and internationally known experts.  Students entering the M-II through M-IV years are eligible to participate and receive a certificate of participation at the end of the program.

Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics:  The VIPBG was founded in 1996 to bring together researchers in the VCU Departments of Psychiatry and Human Genetics to pursue the understanding of the genetics of normal and abnormal human behavior.  Under the leadership of Drs. Kenneth Kendler and Lindon Eaves, this group has achieved international recognition for outstanding scientific productivity.  Several important recent developments have occurred within the Institute. First, we have been awarded P20 and P30 grants from the NIAAA to fund our inter-disciplinary Alcohol-Research Center which will provide critical funding for an inter-disciplinary approach to the genetics of alcohol use and misuse with investigators in the Departments of Pharmacology and Human and Molecular Genetics that will involve 5 organisms: C. Elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, mouse, rat and human.Second, our collaborative schizophrenia genetics project with colleagues in Trinity College Dublin has now born fruit and we are receiving our first large-scale case-control genome wide association and copy number variant data from our combined Irish samples. Early analyses support an important gene localization within the HLA region. Third, our newest faculty member – Dr. Scott Bowers – who has expertise in animal models of addiction and schizophrenia has arrived and will substantially strengthen the basic science component of our program.

Virginia Treatment Center for Children:  The Virginia Treatment Center for Children has become the flagship organization for child and adolescent psychiatry in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Southeast region.  The mission of the VTCC is to provide state of the art assessment/diagnosis and treatment intervention for children and families within its inpatient and outpatient programs that are multidisciplinary and specialize in Mood Disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders, Developmental Disorders Assessment Clinic, and Substance Abuse. VTCC provides intensive mental health evaluations and is associated with the Faison School for autistic children. The Division has expanded its training programs to meet the state’s needs for highly trained, qualified child and adolescent mental health clinicians.  VTCC also has the ability to expand its expertise into new areas of service delivery within the community.  The Commonwealth Institute for Child and Family Studies (CICFS), the Division’s research wing, has begun to establish itself as an important center of research and knowledge development.  We provide leadership in service, research, and training in children’s mental health.