Silbersweig Begins as Chair of Psychiatry

Letter from the BWPO Chairman

David A. Silbersweig, MD, a pioneer in functional neuroimaging and an accomplished researcher and educator in both psychiatry and neurology, began July 1 as the chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospitals and as chair of the Institute for the Neurosciences.

“Please join me in welcoming David to BW/F,” President Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, said. “David has distinguished himself as a clinician, scientist, innovator and mentor, and I am confident he will excel in collaborating with his new colleagues at Brigham and Faulkner in building on our excellence in clinical care, research and education.”

Silbersweig comes to BW/F from New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Medical College of Cornell University where he served as the Stephen Tobin and Arnold Cooper, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Neurology and Neurosciences and vice chairman for Research in the Department of Psychiatry. He also was the founding director of the Division of Neuropsychiatry and the Neurology-Psychology Combined Residency Training Program and co-director of the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory. He completed residencies in both psychiatry and neurology at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and a research fellowship in functional brain imaging at the British Medical Research Council/Hammersmith Hospital in London.

“Brigham and Women’s is an institution well-known for its rigorous practice of academic medicine with incredibly high standards for patient care, phenomenal educational programs and an unrelenting drive to translate basic science to care,” Silbersweig said. “There’s an extraordinary warmth in the culture here, and I’m thrilled to become part of it.”

Silbersweig praised the physicians, nurses, other care providers and administrative staff of the BW/F Department of Psychiatry, which was led by Jonathan Borus, MD, who served as BWH’s psychiatrist in-chief for 18 years and as the hospital’s first chair for the Department of Psychiatry. Borus remains at BWH in a new role as director of Medical Education across all departments.

“David’s successes in developing a unique educational model and its benefits to residents and students of psychiatry and neurology and—more importantly—to patients are well documented,” said Martin Samuels, MD, chair of the Department of Neurology.

As chair of the Institute for the Neurosciences at BWH, Silbersweig will lead a unique collaboration of the departments of Neurology, Neurosurgery, Psychiatry and Radiology dedicated to pioneering treatment, research and prevention of neurologic diseases. In addition, he looks forward to working closely with faculty and other care providers in the Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology.

For Silbersweig, neurology and psychiatry are a natural fit together to study and examine the brain as the organ of the mind. He focuses his research and teaching at the interface. “Patients who present with changes in their behavior, emotions or thinking do not come with labels of psychiatry or neurology,” he said. “The Brigham is unique in our ability to bring an integration of expertise from both fields around patients for complex diagnoses and the creation of multi-faceted treatment plans.”

Patients with brain-mind dysfunction often are under-recognized, under-diagnosed and under-treated. BWH will take an integrated approach founded on translational research, imaging and genetics to improve diagnosis and to provide more targeted treatment for patients. “We need to transform our understanding of brain-mind dysfunction and reduce the stigma associated with mental illness,” Silbersweig said.

Silbersweig has developed and applied new neuroimaging techniques, including novel methods and paradigms for both PET and MRI imaging, to identify neural circuitry abnormalities associated with major psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, major depression, geriatric depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD and borderline personality disorder. He also has published numerous notable articles in major scientific journals, including first reports localizing brain abnormalities associated with psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia and tics in Tourette syndrome, and he has received awards from national organizations, including the National Association for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression.

Silbersweig is bringing a core research team making strides in clinical translational research and basic neuroscience research. Emily Stern, MD, a radiologist who co-founded with Silbersweig the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory at Cornell, is joining him and will be co-director of Functional and Molecular Imaging in the Department of Radiology. Daniel Herrera, MD, PhD, Jane Epstein, MD, and Hong Pan, PhD, are also making the transition to Boston as part of the interdisciplinary team.

“We all come to the study of brain dysfunction from a different angle, so we combine our expertise to make advances on behalf of our patients,” Silbersweig said.