1818 – Asylum for the insane opens in
Charlestown. The asylum’s first
superintendent, Dr. Rufus Wyman insists insanity is treatable and promotes human
treatment for the mentally ill.
1821 – MGH admits first patient
1934 – Dr. Stanley Cobb establishes one of the nation’s first hospital-based departments
of Psychiatry at the MGH.
Era of Psychosomatic medicine,
Psychoanalysis, and Liaison Psychiatry at the
MGH.
1946 – Dr. Cobb accepts the first MGH based Psychiatry residents.
1947 – Child Psychiatry is formally
established and Dr. Lucie Jessner becomes
first director.
1955 – Dr. Erich Lindemann becomes 2nd chief of Psychiatry
Era of Social Psychiatry and community mental health at the MGH.
1965 – Dr. John Nemiah becomes 3rd chief of Psychiatry
Era of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Medical Education at the MGH.
1967 – Dr. Leon Eisenberg becomes 4th chief of Psychiatry
1974 – Dr. Thomas P. Hackett becomes 5th chief of Psychiatry
Era of the return to Liaison Psychiatry at the MGH
1989 – Ned Cassem becomes 6th chief of
Psychiatry
Era of the advent of managed care.
1999 - The Pediatric Psychopharmacology
Unit demonstrates effectiveness of
medical treatment for ADHD in reducing teenage boy substance abuse.
2000 – Dr. Jerrold F. Rosenbaum becomes 7th chief of Psychiatry
Era of Psychiatry, Psychology and the Neurosciences.
1861 - The American Civil War begins
1929 – The Great Depression begins
1941 – Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
Elvis Presley mainstreams Rock N Roll
1969 – Neil Armstrong walks on the moon
1977 – Stars Wars Episode I dominates box office
1982 - CDC Formally establishes the term Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
The internet is born.
2004 - After 86 yrs. of waiting the Boston Red Sox are World Champions
1848 – Phineas Gage’s brain injury; early evidence on brain specificity
1893 – Dr. Emil Kraeplin defines “Dementia Praecox” currently Schizophrenia
1934 - Dr. Manfred Sakel introduces insulin shock therapy; a precurser to ECT.
1949 - Dr. Egaz Moniz wins Nobel prize for his work on psychosurgery / labotomy.
1952 – The APA publishes the first
Diagnostical and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders
Crick and Watson discover the helical structure of DNA
1960 - The first benzodiazepine, Librium, is introduced marking the rise of psychopharmacology.
1970 - FDA approves Lithium for acute mania.
1988 - The first selective serotonin re-uptake
inhibitor (SSRI) antidepresant, Prozac, is released and quickly becomes most prescribed.
President George Bush declares 1990's as "The decade of the brain"