Leon Eisenberg

Dr. Leon Eisenberg (born 1922), Child Psychiatrist and Medical Educator, is credited with a number of "firsts" in medicine and psychiatry - in child psychiatry, autism, and the controversies around autism, RCTs, social medicine, global health, affirmative action, and evidence-based psychiatry.

Medical Accomplishments
The reasons Leon Eisenberg is listed as a famous figure in world and American psychiatry are numerous. Leon Eisenberg identified rapid return to school as the key to treatment in the management of the separation anxiety underlying school phobia. He completed the first outcome study of autistic children in adolescence and recognized patterns of language use as the best predictor of prognosis. He was Principal Investigator (PI) on the first grant from the Psychopharmacology Branch of NIMH for RCTs in child psychopharmacology. He introduced randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in psychopharmacology and showed that “tranquilizing” drugs were inferior to placebo in the treatment of anxiety disorders, whereas stimulant drugs were effective in controlling hyperactivity. He completed the first RCTs of psychiatric consultation to social agencies and of the utility of brief psychotherapy in anxiety disorders. He published a forceful critique of Konrad Lorenz’s instinct theory. He established the usefulness of distinguishing “disease” from “illness”. He has highlighted the environmental context as a determinant of the phenotype emerging from a given genotype, and until recently and since the late '90s, he has been involved with developing conferences and resources for medical educators in various specialties that would help them incorporate, into courses with their current and future students, the tidal wave of new information in genomics yet to puzzle future clinicians.

Leon Eisenberg is proudest of the Diversity Lifetime Achievement Award he received in 2001 for his role in inaugurating affirmative action at HMS in 1968 and sustaining it as Chairman of the Admissions Committee from 1969 to 1974. He regards that as his most important contribution to Harvard Medical School.

With his wife, Dr. Carola Eisenberg, former Dean of Students, first at MIT, then at Harvard Medical School, he is active with Physicians for Human Rights.

Themes of Recent Writing
Why and how did psychoanalysis came to be so dominant for so long has been explored repeating, but outlined here in two papers for different Josiah Macy Conferences:
 * “Modern Psychiatry: Challenges in Educating Health Professionals to Meet New Needs"
 * “The Challenge of Neuroscience: Behavioral Science, Neurology, and Psychiatry”

Earliest Papers

 * Kanner, L. (1946), *Kanner, L. & Eisenberg, L. (1956), Early Infantile Autism 1943-1955, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 26, pp.55-65.

Current Papers

 * Eisenberg L. The Social Construction of the Human Brain, American Journal of Psychiatry 152: 1563-1575, 1995. Translated into Italian as: La Costruzione Sociale Del Cervello Umano. Sapere 62(5):46-58, 1996.


 * Eisenberg L. Nature, niche and nurture: the role of social experience in transforming genotype into phenotype.  Academic Psychiatry. 1998; 22:213-222.  Reprinted in Epidemiologia E Psichiatria Sociale 1999; 8:190-7.  Translated as: Naturaleza, Entorno Y Crianza.  El Papel de la Experiencia Social en la Transformacion del Genotipo en Fenotipo.  Psychiatria Publica 1999; 11:139-46.


 * Eisenberg L. Would cloned human beings be like sheep? New England Journal of Medicine. 1999; 340: 471-475. Reprinted in Klotzko AJ (Ed) (2001) The Cloning Source Book. N.Y., Oxford University Press pp. 70-79.


 * Eisenberg, L. Is Psychiatry More Mindful or Brainier than it Was a Decade Ago? British Journal of Psychiatry.  2000;176.1-5.


 * Eisenberg, L. Good Technical Outcome, Poor Service Experience:  A Verdict on Contemporary Medical Care?  Journal of the American Medical Association 2001;285:2639-2641; in reply. Journal of the American Medical Association 2001;286:1315.


 * Eisenberg L Letter to the Editor: Which Image for Lorenz? American Journal of Psychiatry 2004;161:1760.

Papers written from Consulting
Kleinman A, Eisenberg L, Desjarlais R (Eds) (1995), Consultant on Bangladesh for World mental health: Priorities and problems in low-income countries. New York: Oxford University Press.

Awards
Sc. D. (Hon), University of Manchester in the UK (1973)

Sc. D. (Hon), University of Massachusetts in the U.S (1991)

Theobald Smith Award, Albany Medical College (1979)

Aldrich Richmond Award, American Academy of Pediatrics (1980)

Dale Richmond Awards, American Academy of Pediatrics (1989)

Samuel T. Orton Award, Orton Society (1980)

Special Presidential Commendation, American Psychiatric Association (1992)

Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for Prevention, American Psychiatric Association (1994)

Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Pennsylvania (1992)

Camille Cosby Award, Judge Baker Children's Center (1994)

Thomas W. Salmon Medal, New York Academy of Medicine (1995)

Blanche F. Ittleson Memorial Award, American Orthopsychiatric Association (1996)

Mumford Award, Columbia University School of Public Health (1996)

Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Mental Health, Institute of Medicine (1996)

Award for Distinguished Contribution to Public Policy, SRCD (Society for Research in Child Development) (2003)

Distinguished Service Award, American Psychiatric Association

Walsh McDermott Medal, Institute of Medicine and the National Academies

Epidemiology Award, Harvard School of Public Health (2007)

Honorary Fellow, Greek Society of Neurology and Psychiatry

Honorary Fellow, Ecuadorian Academy of Neuroscience

Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK)

Internal links

 * List of famous figures in psychiatry
 * American Academy of Arts and Sciences
 * Institute of Medicine