Department of Psychiatry

The Yale Department of Psychiatry Mission, Vision, Values Statement

The Yale Department of Psychiatry is dedicated to enhancing well-being, facilitating recovery, and reducing the oppression and suffering associated with mental illness. We do this through the pursuit of excellence in education, practice, prevention, policy, and research; the development of transformative leaders; and restorative and reciprocal community engagement. We embrace multiple approaches to learning, levels of analysis, and ways of knowing. Throughout this work, we strive to nurture a diverse community of trainees, staff, faculty, and partnerships, characterized by compassion, dignity, humility, inclusivity, and justice.

About the Department

The Yale Department of Psychiatry is a world leader in patient care, research, and education. Our department prides itself on its diverse and talented faculty, including a cadre of compassionate clinicians, inter-disciplinary teams of talented investigators, and numerous committed and dedicated teachers, as well as a network of able alumni that remain vital to our missions.

As a department, we not only provide the highest quality of patient care, but also lead the nation in discoveries that are transforming our understanding and treatment of mental illness and addiction.

The department’s Psychology Section, with more than 200 full-time and voluntary faculty, is one of the largest and most accomplished groups of psychologists in an academic medical center.

Chair's Welcome

Welcome to the website of the Department of Psychiatry of the Yale University School of Medicine. Yale is a remarkably exciting academic psychiatry community distinguished by the impact, breadth, and depth of its clinical, training, and research programs.

Pioneering Interventional Psychiatric Services: Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Health

The collaboration between Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital (YNHPH) has resulted in the translation of world-leading research to patient-centered care. Pioneers in the laboratories and in the clinics are transforming lives through the Interventional Psychiatric Services (IPS). IPS is the culmination of research and clinical practice to provide patients who have not been successful with more traditional treatments an opportunity for a better life. IPS includes comprehensive, specialty consultations, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), Ketamine Infusion Therapy (KIT) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). Click on the Yale Psychiatry logo above to view a video about the service.

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Ketamine Clinical Trial

Parkinson disease not only affects a person's mobility, but also many other symptoms in a person with Parkinson disease life. Depression is a very common symptom caused by Parkinson disease, and adequate treatment is imperative for patients to feel their best. Through collaborations between Drs. Sophie E. Holmes and Gerard Sanacora of Psychiatry and the Movement Disorders group, researchers are conducting the first clinical trial of ketamine as an antidepressant in PD. Due to how it works in the brain – its ability to help form new synapses – they have strong reason to believe it will effectively treat depression, and possibly other symptoms, in PD. Using brain imaging before and after treatment will help to determine how it works in the brains of people with Parkinson’s for the first time. The trial is taking place at the Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital. In this video, hear more about the trial from Drs. Holmes and Sanacora and from Brenda, who talks about her experience participating in this groundbreaking research.