Steven E. Hyman, M.D.
Steven E. Hyman, M.D., is the director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute, the Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and a member of the Dana Foundation Board of Directors. Dr. Hyman joined the Broad after a decade of service as provost of Harvard University, where, as Harvard’s chief academic officer, he focused on the development of collaborative scientific initiatives. From 1996 to 2001, he served as director of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Hyman is the editor of the Annual Review of Neuroscience and the founding president of the International Neuroethics Society. Prior to his government service he was the first faculty director of Harvard University’s interdisciplinary Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative, where he studied the control of neural gene expression by neurotransmitters with the goal of understanding mechanisms that regulate emotion and motivation in health and illness.
Psychiatric Drug Development: Diagnosing a Crisis
When it comes to funding drug research to treat depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders, the global pharmaceutical industry prefers to invest its research dollars in cancer, metabolism, autoimmunity, and other disease areas. This comes despite the fact that one in five Americans currently take at least one psychiatric drug and that mental disorders are recognized worldwide. The author traces the evolution of psychiatric drug development, the reasons for its retreat, and what needs to change to meet the growing demand.
Diagnosing the DSM
Diagnostic Classification Needs Fundamental ReformIf all goes as planned, the American Psychiatric Association will release a new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) in May 2013. But, argues Dr. Steven Hyman, the DSM is a poor mirror of clinical and biological realities; a fundamentally new approach to diagnostic classification is needed as researchers uncover novel ways to study and understand mental illness.
Introduction: The Brain’s Special Status
In his introduction to this special issue of Cerebrum, Harvard provost Steven Hyman writes that the brain raises weighty issues deserving the focus created by the concept of neuroethics: The time for broad ethical discussions related to brain science is upon us.