Alexander Glassman

Alexander H. Glassman is an American psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist best known for his work on depression and on the relationship between depression and cardiovascular mortality.His major research interests are affective disorders, psychopharmacology, and smoking cessation.

Education and career

Glassman received his B.S. and M.D. from the University of Illinois. He was trained in psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and then was Chief of Psychiatry at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco. He is presently Chief of Clinical Psychopharmacology at New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Glassman, an authority on depression and antidepressant drugs, altered the standard of care for depressed patients. He showed that inter-individual differences in the metabolism of imipramine influenced clinical outcome and that delusional unipolar depression responded very poorly to antidepressant drugs alone.

He also demonstrated a strong association between major depression and cigarette smoking, and showed that a history of major depression greatly reduces the chances that a smoker will successfully stop, and that if such a smoker should successfully stop, he is at significant risk of developing serious depression.

Glassman's work also clarified the safe treatment of depressed patients with cardiovascular disease. More recently, he has been involved in studies of the relationship between depression and cardiovascular mortality.

Glassman was the Recipient of the American Psychiatric Association's Foundation Fund Prize for lifetime accomplishment in Research; the Established Investigator's Award of the National Association for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders; the New York State Research Award; and the 2007-2008 Anna-Monika Foundation International Prize for research in depression.

He is the author of over 350 scientific publications, and serves on the editorial boards of Heart Disease and the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

His many professional affiliations include membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Council of Research Scientists, the International Congress of Neuropsychopharmacology, and others. He is a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, a life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member of the scientific advisory board of the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), and a member of the scientific advisory panel of the American Legacy Panel.

Selected publications

Glassman AH, Helzer JE, Covey LS, Cottler LB, Stetner F, Tipp JE, Johnson J. Smoking, smoking cessation and major depression. JAMA 264:1546-1549, 1990.

Glassman AH, Roose SP, Bigger JT Jr: The safety of tricyclic antidepressants in cardiac patients - Risk/Benefit reconsidered. JAMA 269:2673-2675, 1993.

Glassman AH, Covey LS, Stetner F, Rivelli S. Smoking cessation and the course of major depression: a follow-up study. Lancet 357:1929-1932, 2001.

Glassman AH, O'Connor CM, Califf RM, et al. Sertraline treatment of major depression in patients with acute MI or unstable angina. JAMA 288(6):701-709, 2002.

Glassman AH, Bigger JT, Gaffney M. Psychiatric characteristics associated with long-term mortality among 361 patients having an acute coronary syndrome and major depression: Seven-year follow-up of SADHART participants. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 69:1022-1029, 2009.

External links

• Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
• New York State Psychiatric Institute

Faculty Profile for Alexander Glassman, M.D.