Martin Keller (psychiatrist)

Martin Keller is an American psychiatrist. He is Mary E. Zucker Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island.^[1]

Career history

Dr. Keller earned his BA in psychology at Dartmouth College; his MD at Cornell University, Weill College of Medicine; internship at Bellevue Medical Center; and residency in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

He has been a pioneer in prospective, longitudinal, naturalistic and neuropsychopharmacologic treatment research, including the development of new assessment methods such as The Longitudinal Follow-up Evaluation, which have become standard in the field and used in over 1,000 research programs worldwide.

The recipient of over 25 NIMH grants, his studies lead to a paradigm shift in understanding that mood and anxiety disorders are not short-lived episodes, but are primarily chronic, recurrent and disabling illnesses, expressed across the lifespan; which provided evidence to the Surgeon Generals report that depression is one of the more devastating public health problems.

Keller discovered that about 25% of major depressive episodes were superimposed on dysthymia, a condition labeled “double depression” which is more pernicious, chronic and disabling than most other forms of MDD. He first identified the serious undertreatment of MDD in 1982, and later organized a consensus conference concluding that less than 10% of patients with MDD receive adequate treatment. He applied these findings and methodologies to empirically develop new short term and maintenance treatment strategies for bipolar disorder, recurrent MDD and chronic MDD; with medication and psychotherapy alone, and in combination.

Awards

Dr. Keller is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Research Award from the APA^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Lieber Award from NARSAD, Klerman Lifetime Research Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, Mood Disorders Lifetime Research Award from the American College of Psychiatrists, Strecker Award from the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Voice of Mental Health Award from the The Jed Foundation for his contributions to suicide prevention.

Efficacy of Paroxetine

He was the lead author of a controversial paper on the use of Paroxetine for treating mental illness in teenagers.^[2] The study on which this work was based, commonly known as "Study 329" found that paroxetine (marketing by its licence-holder GlaxoSmithKline as Seroxat) was no more effective than a placebo in alleviating symptoms such as self-harm and suicidal thoughts for patients in this age group. Subsequent studies using the same data concluded that the incidence of such symptoms was greater for those using Seroxat than for those given placebo.^[3] In addition, study 329 was ghostwritten with the help of ghostwriter Sally Laden. Internal emails brought forward by the BBC reveal Dr. Keller saying, "You did a superb job with this. Thank you very much. It is excellent. Enclosed are some rather minor changes from me...” ^[4]

References

1. ^ Brown Medical School's page on Martin Keller (accessed 29 January 2007)
2. ^ Keller, M.B., Ryan, N.D., Strober, M., Klein, R.G., Kutcher, S.P., Birmaher, B., Hagino, O.R., Koplewicz, H., Carlson, G., Geller, B., Kusumakar, V., Papatheodorou, G., Sack, W.H., Sweeney, M., Wagner, K.D., Weller, E.b., Winters, N.C., Oakes, R., & McCafferty, J.P. (2001). Efficacy of paroxetine in the treatment of adolescent major depression: A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 40(7), 762-772
3. ^ Drug company 'hid' suicide link (BBC News article on Study 329) (accessed 29 January 2007)]
4. ^ Paul Thacker and Danielle Bryan (Nov 29, 2010). "POGO Letter to NIH on Ghostwriting Academics". http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/letters/public-health/ph-iis-20101129.html. Retrieved 9 May 2011. 

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Name	Keller, Martin
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