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1994.02.08 : Frederick Goodwin's Resignation from NIMH Directorship

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE              CONTACT: Elaine Baldwin (NIMH)
Tuesday, Feb. 8, 1994                       (301) 443-4536


     Frederick K. Goodwin, M.D., will leave the directorship of the
National Institute of Mental Health after an award-filled, 29-year
federal scientific career, the U.S. Public Health Service announced
today.

     Dr. Goodwin was the first scientist to demonstrate the
antidepressant effects of lithium in a controlled study.  He will
soon join a local university in order to establish a Center on
Science, Medicine and Human Values, including an emphasis on the
neurosciences.

     At the new center, Dr. Goodwin plans to devote himself in part
to fighting what he calls "the continuing stigmatization of the
mentally ill as it is reflected in today's inequitable health care
coverage."

     The director of the Public Health Service, HHS Assistant
Secretary for Health Philip R. Lee, M.D., said he was announcing 
Dr. Goodwin's departure with "considerable regret."  Dr. Lee said,
"In demonstrating the antidepressant effects of lithium in a
controlled study in the early 1970s, Dr. Goodwin not only made life
more bearable for countless men and women, he helped change how the
world looks at mental illness.  Today, we see mental disorders as
valid forms of illness to be treated like any other illness."

     Harold Varmus, M.D., director of the National Institutes of
Health, said, "Dr. Goodwin is recognized as one of the world's 
foremost authorities on depression and manic depressive illness. 
Speaking on behalf of the NIH community, as well as personally, I
want to express my gratitude for his contributions -- and my
conviction that these contributions will continue in his new
position."

     Dr. Goodwin was the first federal career scientist to be
appointed administrator of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental
Health Administration.   He relinquished the ADAMHA post in 1992 to
become director of NIMH -- then part of ADAMHA -- and oversaw the
institute's return to the National Institutes of Health.  NIMH is
the largest research and research training program in the world
wholly dedicated to the application of biological as well as
behavioral and social science to the treatment and prevention of
mental illness.

     While many other scientists have shied from taking on people
opposed to animal research, Dr. Goodwin has frequently spoken out on
the need for such research, particularly as it relates to mental
illness.

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     Dr. Goodwin's dedication to public service is a family trait: 
His father was among the first 25 named to super grade rank in the
federal government, his mother was a social worker in the Department
of Health and Human Services, his sister is a current member of the
Senior Executive Service, one brother was a high-level attorney in
the Department of Energy and another was a scientist at NIH.

     Dr. Goodwin is founder and co-editor-in-chief of Psychiatry
Research, and serves on the editorial boards of such key journals as
the Archives of General Psychiatry. 

     In 1982, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the
National Academy of Sciences.  He has received the major research
awards in his field, including the Hoffheimer Prize from the
American Psychiatric Association, the Public Service Award from the
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the
Taylor Manor Award, the International Ann-Monika Prize for Research
in Depression and the McAlpen Award from the National Mental Health
Association.  In 1989, he was the first recipient of Psychiatric
Times' award "Psychiatrist of the Year" (Best Teacher in
Psychiatry).

     In 1989, he won the highest honor available to a member of the
career federal service -- the Presidential Distinguished Executive
Award.

     He is one of five psychiatrists on a list of the most
frequently cited scientists in the world.  The author of 375
publications, he collaborated with Kay R. Jamison, Ph.D., on Manic
Depressive Illness (Oxford University Press), a comprehensive
textbook designated by the Association of American Publishers as the
Best Medical Book of 1990.  It was the first psychiatric book to get
such a designation.

     Dr. Goodwin is married to Rosemary Goodwin, a clinical social
worker with expertise in the treatment of substance abuse and
depression.  



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