Judith L. Rapoport is an American psychiatrist. She is the chief of the Child Psychiatry Branch at the

National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...

(NIMH), part of the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

(NIH) in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

. Her research focuses on diagnosis in

child psychiatry Child and adolescent psychiatry (or pediatric psychiatry) is a branch of psychiatry that focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders in children, adolescents, and their families. It investigates the biopsychosocial fact ...

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inap ...

, and

obsessive–compulsive disorder Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental and behavioral disorder in which an individual has intrusive thoughts and/or feels the need to perform certain routines repeatedly to the extent where it induces distress or impairs general ...

. Rapoport’s research group at NIMH also studies clinical

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

neurobiology Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

, and treatment of childhood-onset schizophrenia. Rapoport is the author of the bestselling book, ''The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing: The Experience and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder'' (Plume, 1989), about obsessive–compulsive disorder.

Education

In 1955, Rapoport received her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree, graduating

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

and ''magna cum laude'' from

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

Swarthmore, Pennsylvania Swarthmore ( , ) is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Swarthmore was originally named "Westdale" in honor of noted painter Benjamin West, who was one of the early residents of the town. The name was changed to "Swarthmore" after the es ...

. She received her

medical degree A medical degree is a professional degree admitted to those who have passed coursework in the fields of medicine and/or surgery from an accredited medical school. Obtaining a degree in medicine allows for the recipient to continue on into special ...

in 1959 from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

in Boston, Massachusetts. Rapoport completed training at the

National Children's Hospital The National Children's Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal Náisiúnta na Leanaí) was a children's teaching hospital in Dublin, Ireland. It was absorbed into the Tallaght Hospital in June 1998. History The hospital was founded by Sir Philip Crampton, S ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and the

Karolinska University Hospital The Karolinska University Hospital ( sv, Karolinska universitetssjukhuset) is a teaching hospital affiliated with Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, with two major sites in the municipalities of Solna and Huddinge. The hospital network is ...

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...

. She completed internships at

Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan) Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the United States. It is located in East Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan, on the eastern border of Central Park stretching along Madi ...

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

, and psychiatric residencies at

Massachusetts Mental Health Center The Massachusetts Mental Health Center is a historic psychiatric hospital complex at 75 Fenwood Road in the Longwood medical area of Boston, Massachusetts. The center was founded in 1912 as the Boston Psychopathic Hospital. Its original main b ...

in Boston, Massachusetts and

St. Elizabeths Hospital St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Southeast, Washington, D.C. operated by the District of Columbia Department of Behavioral Health. It opened in 1855 under the name Government Hospital for the Insane, the first federally oper ...

in Washington, D.C. She received additional research training at NIMH’s Laboratory of Psychology in

Career

Rapoport’s research group at NIMH studies the clinical phenomenology,

, and treatment of childhood-onset schizophrenia. In 1984, Rapoport was named chief of NIMH’s Child Psychiatry Branch. In addition to her research at NIH, she holds academic appointments in psychiatry at the

George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (abbreviated as GW Medical School or SMHS) is the professional medical school of the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. SMHS is one of the most selective medi ...

and

Georgetown University School of Medicine Georgetown University School of Medicine, a medical school opened in 1851, is one of Georgetown University's five graduate schools. It is located on Reservoir Road in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, adjacent to the University's ...

, both in Washington, D.C. Rapoport is a member of a number of advisory committees of national professional medical organizations, including the National Anxiety Foundation and the

American Psychopathological Association The American Psychopathological Association (APPA) is an organization "devoted to the scientific investigation of disordered human behavior, and its biological and psychosocial substrates." The association’s primary purpose is running an annual ...

, for which she served as president. Since 1993, she has also served as a member of the scientific council of the

Brain & Behavior Research Foundation The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that funds mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It like ...

. Rapoport has served on the editorial boards of Advances in Clinical Child Psychiatry, ''The American Journal of Psychiatry'', ''Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry'', and others. She has also authored and coauthored several professional medical books, more than 300 scientific research papers, and more than 200 journal articles. In the 60s and 70s she used school age children in drug trials at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Honors

Rapoport is a member of the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

and a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

. Some of Rapoport’s honors and awards include: * G. Burroughs Mider Lecture,

, 1993 *

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...

Award for Research, 1992 * Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award, 1991 * Ruane Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Research,

, 2002 *

Edward M. Scolnick Edward Scolnick is a core investigator at the Broad Institute, the former founding director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Broad Institute, and former head of research and development at Merck Research Laboratories. Educatio ...

Prize in Neuroscience,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

McGovern Institute for Brain Research The McGovern Institute for Brain Research is a research institute within MIT. Its mission is to understand how the brain works and to discover new ways to prevent or treat brain disorders. The institute was founded in 2000 by Patrick McGovern ...

, 2005 * Blanche F. Ittleson Award for Research in Child Psychiatry (1987),

Personal life

Rapoport is married to Stanley I. Rapoport, M.D., a neuroscientist at the

National Institute on Aging The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIA itself is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The NIA leads a broad scientific effort to understand the ...

who has had 19 of his research papers retracted due to scientific misconduct, whom she met at Harvard Medical School.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rapoport, Judith L. Living people American child psychiatrists American neuroscientists American women neuroscientists National Institutes of Health people Harvard Medical School alumni Swarthmore College alumni American women psychiatrists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the National Academy of Medicine Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists 20th-century American women physicians 21st-century American women physicians 20th-century American physicians 21st-century American physicians

Education

Career

Honors

Personal life

Further reading

References