‘This award reflects the increasing profile of research in C-L Psychiatry’

Michael Sharpe, MD, FACLP, ACLP president (2019-2020), and Oxford professor, has been selected by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for this year’s Adolf Meyer Award for lifetime achievement in psychiatric research.

 

Dr. Sharpe will present the Adolf Meyer Award Lecture entitled Can Psychiatry Make Medicine Better: a tale of three trials at the APA’s conference in San Francisco, May 20-24.

Dr. Sharpe says: ”I am honored to receive this award which reflects the increasing profile of research in C-L Psychiatry and the important role of our Academy. My lecture will be closely aligned to our mission of delivering research aimed at advancing integrated psychiatric care for the medically ill.”

The award, established in 1957, is named after a Swiss-born American psychiatrist who rose to prominence as the first psychiatrist-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was APA president in 1927-28 and was one of Psychiatry’s most influential figures in the first half of the twentieth century.

Meyer’s legacy includes his idea of psychobiology, an approach to Psychiatry which integrates the psychological and biological study of human beings, and his empirical non-dogmatic approach. These ideas have been incorporated into psychiatric theory and practice in the US and other English-speaking nations and formed the basis of George Engel’s biopsychosocial medical model. The award is therefore especially appropriate for a researcher in C-L Psychiatry.

Previous award winners include Aaron T Beck, MD, globally recognized as the father of cognitive behavior therapy and one of the world’s leading researchers in psychopathology; Robert Cloninger, MD, noted for his research on the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual foundation of both mental health and mental illness; and Jimmie Holland, MD, a founder of the field of psycho-oncology.