Frederick J. Stoddard Jr., M.D.

Dr. Stoddard, an Associate Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School, is Chief of Psychiatry at the Shriners Burns Hospital for Children (an affiliate, next door to the MGH), and senior attending psychiatrist at the Adult Burn Unit and Massachusetts General Hospital Burn Center. He is on the faculty of the Division of Child Psychiatry at the MGH. He is active nationally, and is consulted regarding trauma, burns, disasters and terrorism. He is board certified in psychiatry and in child psychiatry, and is a board examiner.

He received his B.A. from Bowdoin College in Maine, and his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He trained at Harvard Medical School-affiliated residencies. He was also a Commonwealth Research Fellow at the Children's Hospital. He served in the U.S. Public Health Service in the Job Corps, and gained research experience on bipolar illness with Drs. Bunney and Post as a Clinical Fellow in the Adult Psychiatry Branch at the NIH. He is inspired by the groundbreaking work at the MGH after the Cocoanut Grove Fire of Erich Lindemann and Stanley Cobb in burn and disaster psychiatry, and by Norman Bernstein's work on childhood burns. He participated in care of survivors of the Station Nightclub Fire in Rhode Island, and leads planning for response to disasters and terrorism.

Dr. Stoddard's research is in two areas: PTSD in 1-4 year old children; and prevention of PTSD in burned children and adults. At the Shriners Hospital and at the MGH Burn Center, he works to enhance preparation for crises, and to support resilience and reduce staff stress on the burn and disaster teams. His neurobiological research aims to reduce the pain and suffering of traumatized children and adults. He is an advocate for research on early preventive treatment of pain, anxiety, depression following burn trauma, research on body image, and he authored a landmark study which identified high rates of PTSD, depression and other disorders in children with burns which generated new research nationally and internationally. His team has contributed to improved care of traumatized children and adults.

His collaborators include Glenn Saxe, M.D., David Chedekel Ed.D., Roger Pitman, M.D., Gregory Fricchione M.D., J. Michael Murphy Ed.D., Jerome Kagan, Ph.D., Mark Pollack M.D., John Levine M.D., Ph.D., John Findley M.D., Robert Sheridan, M.D. and others. In 2001, he reviewed the psychiatric aspects of all pediatric injuries. He is collaborating with Dr. Ronald Tompkins on a multicenter outcome study of burned children. He teaches HMS students and residents from the MGH and Cambridge Hospitals, and is collaborating on improving the teaching of psychosocial skills to medical students. He has authored over 75 publications in child and adolescent psychiatry, and in adult psychiatry. He chairs the Committee on Terrorism of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry, co-chairs the American Psychosomatic Society Task Force on Terrorism and Disasters, serves on the APA Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing, and served on the Committee on Psychiatric Dimensions of Disasters and other committees. As President of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society in 2000-2001, he led successful efforts to relieve the crisis in child mental health, and to pass mental health parity legislation. Prior to 9/11 he initiated the organization of disaster psychiatry in Massachusetts, leading psychiatric involvement in drills at Logan airport, responses to large fires and a mass shooting, and relief for those impacted by 9/11.