VCU news

By Anne Buckley

Dr. Joel Silverman can remember a time when he was told not to wear his white coat in the hospital because his area of specialty – psychiatry – embroidered on the jacket embarrassed some patients.

Twenty years later, he wears the white coat with pride. He also speaks with pride about changes both in the field and in his department that have moved psychiatry forward: the stigma once attached to mental disease has diminished considerably; researchers now view psychiatry as more of a brain science; and the community has unprecedented access to top-notch, academic mental health care because of the creation in his department of several research-specific centers.

Along the way, his department has earned the distinction of having more psychiatric research cited in medical journals than any other university in the United States.

“When I first came to the university, I did what all the other doctors do when going on rounds in the hospital: I put my name and my specialty on my white coat,” said Silverman. “I was told to take it off because it embarrassed patients to have others know they were being seen by a psychiatrist.”

“Now we have more people who want to see us than we have time to see,” he said. “That’s progress.”

“The Department of Psychiatry and its clinicians log more than 50,000 patient visits per year”, Silverman said. In addition, the department has doctors and other mental health care professionals working in community clinics, state hospitals, the prison system and even public schools in the area.

As he reflects on 20 years as chairman, Silverman says that part of the progress can be attributed to the emergence of psychiatry as “brain science.”

“In the old days psychiatry had more of a psychology-based background,” he said. “Now we know from research over the years that genetics and changes in the brain influence behavior, as does psychosocial experience.”

“For example, if a person is under stress, their genetics might determine how they react,” he said. “One might develop anxiety, one might develop depression and another might develop psychosis.”

“We are just in the early stages of understanding how genetics impacts behavior,” he said. “But it’s definitely one of the best ways to research the brain and all its functions and the emotions and behaviors it controls.” The Institute of Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics is a meaningful collaboration between the VCU Departments of Psychiatry and Human Genetics.

Silverman says the research-specific centers within his department, and the scientists who lead them, help ensure that VCU is a leader in research.

In particular, the Institute of Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, the Commonwealth Institute for Child and Family Studies and the Mood Disorders Institute are all components of the department working to advance the study of feelings and emotions as science. The department also has an important leadership role in the Institute for Women’s Health/National Center of Excellence.

“The research being done in these and other facilities we operate is jump starting us to move into the future,” Silverman said.