Department of Psychiatry Milestones at the Brigham and Women's Hospital
One hundred years ago, at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital/Harvard Medical School, were Harvey Cushing and Walter B. Cannon, towering figures in the history of medicine. Cushing, the father of modern neurosurgery, described mood changes associated with endocrine abnormalities. Cannon, the pioneering physiologist/physician who developed to concept of homeostasis, realized the simultaneous and mechanistic relationship between autonomic physiology and emotion, and coined the term “fight or flight response.” Psychiatry originated at the PBBH as a Division within the Department of Medicine.
2008—Dr. David Silbersweig, a pioneering neuropsychiatrist and brain imaging scientist, was recruited to lead the department as well as the BWH Institute for the Neurosciences. The BWH Department of Psychiatry is now at the leading edge of a transformation in the field—one in which underlying mechanisms of mind-brain disorders are being identified, while associated, evidence-based treatments are being enhanced. This reduces the misunderstandings regarding mental illnesses, and increases hope for the large numbers of patients and families who suffer with difficulties in thought, feelings and behavior.
