Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience
At the Saint Louis University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, we are clinicians, educators and scholars committed to the generation, dissemination and application of scientific and medical knowledge and psychiatric advances.
We believe that mental health professionals should engage fully on the issues of our day and provide scientifically informed perspectives on the questions of human behavior.
We are proud to be psychiatrists and psychologists, dealing with the many disorders of the most advanced functions of the human brain.
SLU's approach is firmly anchored on a foundation of neuroscience, which implies that all psychiatric disorders are brain disorders manifesting in altered mood, thought, cognition and behavior. Advances in the molecular neuroscience of how the brain generates a mind are breathtaking, and that will lead to progress in developing novel and transformative therapeutic approaches based on neurobiological models. The future of psychiatry and psychology has never been brighter, and the questions we must address have never been more urgent.
Join us in caring for patients, training the next generation, and discovering new ways to help others.
Department Objectives
Our top priority is teaching and training medical students and residents to provide the highest quality of evidence-based psychiatric medical care.
A clinical clerkship is the only opportunity most medical students will have to learn how to diagnose and treat common psychiatric disorders, which they will later realize affects a substantial proportion of patients regardless of their specialty. We provide fourth-year electives (i.e., geriatric, addiction, community, sub-internship and consult liaison psychiatry) for a growing number of medical students interested in psychiatry specialties in their senior year.
The psychiatric residents who spend four years training in our department experience significant personal and professional transformation. We strive to inspire and mold our trainees to become highly competent clinicians who can skillfully diagnose and manage any clinical condition. We also instill in our trainees a love of discovery and lifelong learning to ensure they remain on the forefront of psychiatry, a rapidly moving medical specialty. We prepare our residents for any career path they choose, be it academic, community-based, hospital-based, administrative or private practice.
Our fellows can access clinical, educational and research opportunities to develop their specific interests within their chosen specialty.
Our forensic psychiatry fellowship aims to train fellows to ethically and appropriately interface with the legal system to provide pertinent information for criminal and civil litigation by providing broad exposure to many field areas, including criminal and civil practice, public policy and systems' issues.
In our geriatric psychiatry fellowship, we train our fellows to take a multidisciplinary, bio-psycho-social approach to evaluating and treating various conditions, including memory disorders, late-life depression, anxiety disorders and late-life psychoses. We are also involved in comprehensive assessments to determine a person's placement, legal consultation for capacity and guardianship determinations.
Achievements
- 100% of our recent graduating residents passed the boards the first time.
- Our faculty publish numerous journal articles, book chapters and books.
We have the only brain bank among medical schools in the Midwest. - The editorial office of the forensic psychology journal Behavioral Sciences & the Law is housed in our department.
- Our medical students, residents and fellows regularly present at national meetings and publish articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Grand Rounds
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience Grand Rounds are held noon-1 p.m. on Thursdays on SLU's South Campus, in Schwitalla Hall, Lecture Room 1 and/or Zoom. If you want to be added to the mailing list for announcements and flyers, contact: linda.house1@slucare.ssmhealth.com.
Saint Louis University School of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of one AMA PRA Category 1 Credit.鈩� Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.
Saint Louis University鈥檚 Institute for Translational Neuroscience (ITN) aims to ease human suffering from neurological illness. The new institute brings together experts in biochemistry, chemistry, pharmacology, social justice, and community outreach under a shared research umbrella to study the physiology and diseases of the brain and central nervous system and thereby ease human suffering.
The course director of this activity has ensured that the content of this presentation conforms to the ACCME policy requiring that all recommendations involving clinical medicine are based on evidence that is accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for their indications and contraindications in the care of patients and all scientific research referred to, reported or used in support or justification of a patient care recommendation conforms to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection and analysis.
It is the policy of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine to ensure balance, independence, objectivity and scientific rigor in continuing medical education. Faculty participating in continuing medical education activities are required to disclose any of the following to the audiences prior to the activity:
Any significant financial or other relationship with the manufacturer of any commercial
product or provider of any commercial service discussed
Intention to discuss a product that is not labeled for the use under discussion
Intention to discuss preliminary research data
The Saint Louis University School of Medicine will review the activity鈥檚 disclosures and resolve all identified conflicts of interest, if applicable.
Community Partners
Saint Louis Psychoanalytic Institute
The has strongly influenced the training of the next generation of psychiatry residents at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience for more than 50 years.
The psychoanalytic faculty has directed courses at SLU since the 1960s. We deeply appreciate St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute鈥檚 contribution to educating our psychiatry residents.
Make a Gift
Your gift allows us to maintain and enhance the rich tradition of our resident education
during challenging economic times. Any level of support is greatly appreciated. Donations
are tax deductible and can be made online.
Under the "Gift Designation" menu, select "Other, please specify" and type "Psychiatry
and Behavioral Neuroscience - Resident Travel."