The Department of Psychiatry at The University of Iowa is made up of more than 30 full-time faculty members. It combines a high level of clinical competence with excellence in research and provides national and international leadership in the areas of epidemiology, genetics, neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse, medical psychiatry, consultation-liaison psychiatry, and schizophrenia.

The department has made, and continues to make, important contributions to new understanding and knowledge of these areas and, on a per-faculty basis, contributes more to psychiatric journals than any other department in the country.

The faculty includes two chief editors of major psychiatric journals and many others serve on editorial boards. Faculty members have made major contributions to the development of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), beginning with DSM-III and continuing with DSM-IV, and have contributed importantly to the development of modern psychiatric treatments. As research is an integral part of the foundation of clinical medicine, we take pride in the contributions of the faculty in these areas.

The Department of Psychiatry has a tradition of exploring innovative somatic treatments for psychiatric illness. Important early work on the use of electroconvulsive treatment for depression was begun in the 1940s and 1950s. Iowa was one of the first sites in the United States to study lithium before it was clinically approved.

The discovery of the value of haloperidol for Tourette's syndrome occurred at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. We conducted early trials of other drugs as well, including alprazolam, clomipramine, clozapine, and a number of selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors.