Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Welcome to the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Louisville.  As you look through our website, I feel confident that you will be impressed by the developments in our department and the wide range of activities in which our faculty participate.  The information you will find reflects our faculty’s hard work and dedication to providing the highest quality in all aspects of academic psychiatry.  I am pleased to have continued to guide the department through this important period in our history.

We continue to have one of the strongest Medical Student Education programs in the country.  The recruitment of our own UofL medical students into careers in psychiatry has averaged twice the national average over the last two decades.  Our Clinical Clerkship in Psychiatry is one of the highest rated, year after year, in the entire School of Medicine.

Our Residency Program and Fellowships continue to thrive.  We are one of the only University Psychiatry Residency programs in our region which did not downsize during the 1990s, and we continue to maintain a strong recruitment record.  Two of our faculty members are past presidents of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training, giving us a wealth of insight and expertise about state of the art training.  We have also recently expanded our Child Psychiatry Training Program and have plans in the works to expand our Addiction Fellowship and develop new fellowships in Geriatric Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Forensic Psychiatry.

Research development over the last eight years has been substantial in the department.  We have worked with the Department of Pediatrics and other departments in the University to develop a University-wide Center for Autism, soon to be implemented.  We have just initiated a $10 million development campaign to provide two endowed chairs and administrative support for a new Center for Depression. And, we continue to add faculty members with primary assignments in research.

Our clinical programs have continued to thrive and expand.  A number of new clinical programs have been developed within our service at the Louisville Veterans Administration Medical Center.  Our ambulatory visits in our Health Sciences Center hospital programs have doubled in the last five years and we continue to develop a variety of new subspecialty programs.  In July, 2008 we opened a new 15,000 square foot Faculty Practice Service as part of the Medical School’s new comprehensive, multi-specialty, Faculty Practice.  In addition, we are expanding our programs in Women’s Mental Health, Memory Disorders, Geropsychiatry, Anxiety Disorders, PsychoOncology, and Addictions.

In summary, I think that you can see that this has been a time of great accomplishment in our department, but we are not resting on our laurels.  We continue to plan for the future and believe that there remains tremendous potential for growth.

Welcome,

Allan Tasman, M.D.
Professor and Chairman
President, Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists
Secretary for Education, World Psychiatric Association
Past President, American Psychiatric Association