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.

By any standard, Yale is an outstanding Department of Psychiatry. Our research programs have produced breakthroughs in fields as diverse as molecular neuroscience, genetics, translational neuroscience, neuroimaging, psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, rehabilitation, health services, forensic psychiatry, epidemiology, and health policy. Yale investigators have pioneered new treatments for nearly every psychiatric disorder. We are routinely in the top two in the nation in research funding from the National Institutes of Health and we are leaders in research supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Our training programs have produced generations of leaders including a dozen medical school deans, four dozen chairs of departments of psychiatry, and leading figures in research, clinical psychiatry, and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

We have devoted a great deal of effort to make our large and diverse Department collegial, collaborative, and accessible. Yale Psychiatry has many “homes” including Yale-New Haven Hospital (a private non-profit hospital), the Connecticut Mental Health Center (a component of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services), the VA Connecticut Healthcare System (a VA Medical Center), the Yale Department of Undergraduate Health (Yale Health Services), and the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center (a component of the Institute of Living of Hartford Hospital). We function as a single entity united in the mission of alleviating the burden of mental illness.

Yale and New Haven are wonderful homes for our Department. Yale is one of the world’s great universities and we work closely with faculty throughout the University to take full advantage of this special environment. New Haven is also a jewel, with great theater, wonderful restaurants, abundant natural attractions, and easy access to Manhattan, Vermont, Cape Cod, the Berkshires, and Boston.

As chair of the Yale Department of Psychiatry, I invite you to explore our website and our Department. I would be pleased to assist you in learning more about our Department.

John H. Krystal, MD