Hagop Souren Akiskal ( hy, Յակոբ Սուրէն Աքըսգալ; 16 January 1944 – 20 January 2021)
was a Lebanese-born American
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
and professor, of Armenian descent.
He is best known for his research on
temperament
In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes.
Some researchers point to association of temperam ...
and
bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...
(manic depression), revolutionizing the field of
clinical psychiatry
Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...
.
Biography
Hagop Souren Akiskal was born on 16 January 1944 in
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
; to Armenian parents.
He received his
M.D.
Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...
from the
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...
in 1969.
He completed his residency training in psychiatry at
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
. Akiskal then worked for several years as a clinician and mood disorders researcher and Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at the
University of Tennessee, Memphis.
He was senior science advisor at
NIMH NIMH may refer to:
*Nickel–metal hydride battery (NiMH), a type of electrical battery
*National Institute of Mental Health, an agency of the United States government
*National Institute of Medical Herbalists, a professional organisation in the Un ...
from 1990 to 1994, before moving to the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
.
He was a leading conceptual thinker in the area of bipolar sub-typing, Akiskal was a fastidious researcher and an astute clinical observer. He was a devotee of
Emil Kraepelin
Emil Wilhelm Georg Magnus Kraepelin (; ; 15 February 1856 – 7 October 1926) was a German psychiatrist.
H. J. Eysenck's ''Encyclopedia of Psychology'' identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology and psychi ...
; he believed that the nosologic (classification) pendulum is gradually swinging back towards Kraepelin's original unitary concept of the bipolar spectrum of mood disorders (Lieber, Arnold).
Akiskal rose to prominence with his integrative theory of depression. Subsequently, he established chronic depressions as treatable mood disorders. His research on
cyclothymia
Cyclothymia ( ), also known as cyclothymic disorder, psychothemia/psychothymia, bipolar III, affective personality disorder and cyclothymic personality disorder, is a mental and behavioural disorder that involves numerous periods of symptoms of ...
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 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
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 profess ...
), as well as the French Jules Baillarger and the Italian Aretaeus Prizes for his research on the bipolar spectrum.
Akiskal has pioneered in the study of outpatient mood disorders. At the
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...
, 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 ranged from
dysthymia
Dysthymia ( ), also known as persistent depressive disorder (PDD), is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically a disorder primarily of mood, consisting of similar cognitive and physical problems as major depressive disorder, but with lon ...
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
The Ellis Island Medal of Honor is an American award founded by the Ellis Island Honors Society (EIHS) (formerly known as the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO)), which is presented annually to American citizens, both native-born a ...
"for exceptional national humanitarian service."
Past Medalists
, National Ethnic Coalition. Accessed 22 January 2010
He was a highly prolific writer of articles in psychiatry and the editor of several academic journals, including serving as a co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Affective Disorders
The ''Journal of Affective Disorders'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering research on all aspects of affective disorders. It is published by Elsevier and its editors-in-chief are P. Brambilla and J.C. Soares. It was established in 1979 and ...
. He has received a number of honors for his work on temperament and bipolar spectrum disorders.
Akiskal died of natural causes at age 77, on January 20, 2021, in La Jolla
La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781.
La Jolla is surrounded on ...
in San Diego, California.
References
External links
Faculty profile page
at UCSD
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akiskal, Hagop S.
American psychiatrists
21st-century American psychologists
Bipolar disorder researchers
Psychiatry academics
Lebanese psychiatrists
American University of Beirut alumni
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
University of Tennessee faculty
University of California, San Diego faculty
Lebanese people of Armenian descent
Lebanese emigrants to the United States
American people of Armenian descent
1944 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American psychologists