Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Welcome from the Chair Russell E. Scheffer, M.D.

Welcome to our Web site and thank you for your interest in our department.

I arrived as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in June 2007. There have been a number of changes in the last three years that warrant discussion. There is also much that for good reason has remained the same. We have and will continue to build upon a strong foundation.

I truly believe in a four pronged approach to academic psychiatry and behavioral sciences. These four areas include education, clinical care, research and community involvement. Research can help bring new and innovative treatments to patients suffering from very common psychiatric conditions.

Education must better prepare our medical workforce to identify and treat these conditions. Research in our department is predominantly patient centered and therefore focused on improving the care of patients. Community service and involvement reminds us that academic psychiatry must take a lead in public policy and informing decision makers about treatments that work. Clinical care is the final common pathway for all of our endeavors. Bringing our research supported expertise to many clinicians who ultimately treat human suffering is the goal of all of our endeavors.

Research is a major part of the department's mission. We are building towards additional research for both faculty and residents. While we have many collaborations, the majority of research in the department is patient focused. We hope to improve the lives of our patients by translating the latest basic science research findings into improved clinical care.

I have recently been selected to serve as the principal investigator for a NIH funded study of the use of lithium in youth ages 7 to 17. This study was directed by the National Institute of Child Health and Development is entitled the Collaborative Lithium Trial (CoLT). We have a number of other pharmacology trials in youth. Nicole Klaus, Ph.D. has a number of initial projects that are moving towards a NIH submission.

Sheldon Preskorn, M.D., the previous chair of the department, developed the Clinical Research Institute (CRI) as a for-profit company focused on early phase work in medication development. CRI has been converted to a not-for-profit company. This company is a limited liability company who continues to be owned by the Medical Practice Association. The not-for-profit status allows the department and our faculty to work together more closely. It is anticipated that this will benefit both groups. While Dr. Preskorn has always been very involved in teaching research to the residents the new company has this training has a core part of the mission.

Matthew Macaluso, M.D. and Ahsan Khan, M.D. both have ongoing studies funded by the pharmaceutical industry or NIH.

Our Neuropsychology group has had ever increasing success in presenting and publishing their work.

Clinical care is ultimately why we exist. Without vibrant clinical programs it is much more difficult to train students and residents and to conduct meaningful research. We are currently experiencing and planning on significant growth. We are recruiting more child and adolescent and general psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and therapists. We are slowly becoming more available to the region as an outpatient center of excellence.

In addition to our clinical work, medical student education and research activities, we train 20 general psychiatry residents, one neuro-psychology intern, and two neuro-psychology fellows each year.

Funding is being sought to start a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship and to restart the geriatric psychiatry fellowship. Our goal is to be the best psychiatric treatment group in the region.

Despite our many activities, our faculty maintains close personal contact with all trainees. The faculty have many specialized areas of expertise. We have faculty who are nationally and internationally acclaimed in the areas of psychiatric diagnosis, treatment and nosology. This recognition is exemplified by contributions from our department to DSM-IV, psychopharmacology (demonstrated by the number of important major medications which had early testing in our department), as well as pharmacoeconomics, neuropsychology, and family systems approaches.

In addition to diagnostic and psychopharmacologic approaches to psychiatric illness, there is a strong emphasis on psychotherapeutic approaches. Expert psychotherapy teaching and supervision is provided by the psychologist members of our faculty. Residents also benefit from the integration of psychotherapeutic principles in all of our clinical activities on a daily basis. We have adult psychologists certified to provide CBT in NIMH sponsored trials.

Our faculty is well-trained and well-known; members serve as officers, committee members and chairs, editorial board members, etc., for major national organizations and publications. Our psychiatrists are board certified in general psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Two faculty members have additional certification in child and adolescent psychiatry, and four have added qualifications in geropsychiatry. Three of our faculty regularly served as board examiners. Yet, with all of these accomplishments you will find our faculty approachable and accessible.

Ours is a community-based psychiatric department. As with the rest of the KU School of Medicine-Wichita, rather than having a narrowly based realm of activities within a university hospital, our department has its clinical base in the community. The department operates teaching services at local hospitals organized under the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education (WCGME). This provides a broad clinical base which includes patients from various walks of life. In addition they are seen in different settings. Thus, our department is in the "real" world, and is positioned for shifts in the ever changing medical climate.

We are beginning to plan for a new outpatient facility with the hope that the majority of our education, patient care and research will all take place in the same facility.