The Department of Psychiatry at VCU Medical Center is a leading contributor to mental health research, teaching and clinical services. Our department is a productive academic organization providing services to people of all ages, from all areas of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Department of Psychiatry uses multidisciplinary evaluation and treatment to develop evidence based treatment plans that reflect our patient’s unique needs and strengths. Our world-class teaching staff ensures that Virginia will have a strong supply of highly-trained clinicians to treat our citizens now and in the future. Our world class researchers are the best in the world. Dr. Kenneth Kendler won the 2011 World Psychiatric Association’s highest prize and the 2012 Virginia Scientist of the Year Award. Our faculty works to discover and distribute new scientific knowledge that will assist in developing best practices in preventive and personalized health care.

Excellence in Clinical Care

• Our clinics are located in locations throughout Virginia. Our faculty sees patients of all ages who suffer from a variety of mental illnesses, from mood disorders and psychosis to personality and addictive disorders. We have faculty who lead the field in the interface of psychiatry and primary care, women's mental health and genetics research.

• Major renovations are underway to the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, where our faculty is engaged in education, treatment services and research. Our pediatric division is undergoing a legislative study to fund a public-private partnership to build the East Coast premier Center for children’s mental health care. 

• Our Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry division is one of the best in the nation. Our faculty currently leads clinics on HIV, Neuropsychiatry, Transplant and Hepatology at VCU Medical Center.

• Deep Brain Stimulation and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a form of brain stimulation, which reorganizes a brain's dysfunctional neural circuitry to the benefit of the patient. It is currently being used for people suffering from depression that is treatment-resistant—meaning it doesn't respond to the first-line approaches including antidepressant medications, psychotherapy and lifestyle changes.
  
  New approaches are being studied within our Department today! Click the link to see the most recent article about our Vice Chair, Dr. Pandurangi, one of 12 in the nation to be chosen to lead this study.

• Child Mental Health Resource Center
  The Children's Mental Health Resource Center opened in March 2011. The Center was founded by the Virginia Treatment Center for Children, the Department’s division of child psychiatry and a coalition of organizations and individuals in the Greater Richmond community who came together with the goal of making it easier to navigate the complex system of mental health care for children. 
  
  "We want to be the GPS for children's mental health," said Bob Cohen, PhD, former director of the Virginia Treatment Center for Children and one of the Center's founders. "One in five children experience a mental health problem that impacts their daily life, but it's very difficult to find and obtain appropriate mental health services in our system. We are trying to change that. We want to provide a one-stop place for people to learn about children's mental health and get connected to services."
  

Excellence in Research

• More than 100 clinical trials testing innovative treatments for depression, anxiety, psychotic disorders, and children's mental disorders have been conducted in the department. We were one of the sites for the (Sequenced Alternatives to Treat Depression (STAR*D) Project (Dr. Susan Kornstein, site Principal Investigator), the largest depression trial ever funded by the National Institutes of Health.

• The Department of Psychiatry at VCU is a collaborative effort. We could not tackle our goal of conquering mental illness without help from around the world, our nation and across campus. Currently, Dr. Kenneth Kendler and his team at VIPBG are doing genetic research in 54 hospitals in the People’s Republic of China and studying the entire population of Finland with researchers in Oxford, England. Our Vice Chair and Chairman have fostered strategic partnerships with the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India.  and INOVA Fairfax Hospital. We study the genetics of stress, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder in veteran families in the regional veteran’s hospital.

• Spit for Science: This VCU Student Survey is an effort being led by researchers at VIPBG to bring that research home to VCU in a way that will integrate with the goals of the University's Quest for Distinction and benefit VCU students. The project aims to understand how individual genetic predispositions come together with environmental factors to contribute to these outcomes. Click the link http://spit4science.vcu.edu/ to learn more about the success of this project.

• The Center for Child and Family Studies has recently secured nearly $4 million from the NIH and the Virginia Foundation on Healthy Youth to study adolescent mental health care in urban environments.

• Our department built the first academic Human-Animal Bond program in United States. Established in 2001, the purpose of the Center for Human-Animal Interaction  is to provide a formal structure for and promote interdisciplinary and interinstitutional research, clinical practice, and educational activities related to the human-animal relationship.

Excellence in Education

• Our faculty in the Medical Psychiatry and Health Psychology program developed the first accredited fellowship program in the country that trains psychiatrists to take care of the medically ill. Our Director, Dr. James Levenson, has published four books, including Psychiatry Essentials for Primary Care, and The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychosomatic Medicine. He is the editor of the Journal of Psychosomatic Research. Dr. Levenson has also been recognized with VCU's highest teaching award and its Distinguished Clinician Award.

• Our department Chair, Dr. Joel Silverman,and renowned national expert in children’s mental health, the Medical Director of the Virginia Treatment Center for Children, Dr. Bela Sood, served on the National Psychiatry Residency Review Committee. Two of our faculty currently serve at the pleasure of the Governor on state-wide regulatory boards, the Board of Social Services and the State Board of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.

• Our department is responsible for the psychiatric education of 680 medical students in VCU's School of Medicine and operates special training programs for post-doctoral psychologists, M.D./Ph.D. candidates and social work interns.

• Our Department offers the Summer Institute in Psychiatry for medical students 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.

• We boast a cadre of community physicians who volunteer their time as clinical faculty at VCU to mentor our residents during their tenure at VCU. Many of these doctors are in private practice and yet are still eager to teach the next generation of mental health providers about the dynamic field of psychiatry.

• We have one of the nation’s strongest Psychotherapy Education programs:  In an era in which some psychiatric residency programs have chosen to de-emphasize the study of the mind in favor of a purely "brain-based" approach, we have remained committed to a balanced biopsychosocial perspective. We implement a progressive series of didactic seminars, a structured set of clinical experiences, and a network of about 60 psychotherapy supervisors who facilitate this training.