Armenians
THEIR GROUNDBREAKING CONTRIBUTIONS REFLECT A LEGACY OF INNOVATION THAT CONTINUES TO INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS
Hagop Akiskal
Pioneering Bipolar-Disorder Researcher
Bio
Hagop Akiskal is a psychiatrist recognized for his groundbreaking research in temperament and bipolar-spectrum disorders.
Born in 1944 in Lebanon, Akiskal received his MD from American University of Beirut in 1969. He completed his residency training in psychiatry at University of Wisconsin, Madison, and then worked for several years as a clinician and mood-disorders researcher at University of Tennessee, Memphis.
Akiskal was senior science advisor at the National Institute of Mental Health from 1990 to 1994, before moving to University of California, San Diego, where he is currently professor of psychiatry.
Akiskal rose to prominence with his integrative theory of depression.
Subsequently he established chronic depressions as treatable mood disorders. Today he is considered the world’s leading conceptual thinker in the area of bipolar subtyping.
Akiskal is the recipient of many awards, including the Gold Medal for Pioneer Research (Society of Biological Psychiatry) and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor “for exceptional national humanitarian service.”