Gordon Parker (psychiatrist)

Gordon Barraclough Parker AO is Scientia Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). In 2010 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of his distinguished service to psychiatry as a clinician and researcher, particularly as a major contributor to the understanding and innovative treatment of mood disorders and as founder and Executive Director of the Black Dog Institute.

Parker’s particular focus is on the phenomenology and epidemiology of mood disorders, social psychiatry, and the treatment (both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy) and management of mood disorders. His research has assisted in modelling psychiatric conditions – depression, bipolar and personality disorders – and examining causes, mechanisms and treatments for mood disorders, together with innovative clinical work.

Parker is a critic of the current unitary classification of major depressive disorder (as represented in the DSM-5), and has proposed the revival of the diagnosis of melancholia.

Early life and education

Parker was born in Melbourne, schooled at Shore in Sydney, completed an MB BS at the University of Sydney (USyd), and an MD (1978), PhD (1983) and DSc (1997) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He is married, with four children. His path to Medicine and his clinical rationale is outlined in his autobiography, "A Piece of My Mind".[1]

Career

Previous positions include Head of the School of Psychiatry at UNSW (1983-2002) and Director of the Division of Psychiatry at Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospitals, Sydney (1983-1996); and founder and inaugural Director (2002-2012) of the Black Dog Institute, an organization that focuses on research into and treatment of mood disorders, in particular clinical depression and bipolar disorder. Concurrent with this (1998-2000), he was part-time Research Director at the Institute of Mental Health (Singapore).

As a consequence of his advocacy for diagnosing melancholia, in 2010 Parker was invited to head a group of prominent international psychiatrists to argue for its separate status in the new DSM-5 classificatory system.[2]

He was appointed as a member of the International Advisory Board of the 1994 DSM-IV Task Force for both Mood Disorders and for Personality Disorders, and a Work Group Advisor for Mood Disorders for the 2013 DSM-5.

Parker has been a member of the Editorial Boards of 16 journals, and was the invited Editor of the December 2015 issue of Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. He assesses some 80 papers per year for scientific journals. He is an invited assessor for various National Health and Medical Research (NHMRC) Grants. He has been involved for many years with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) – as Editor of the Journal (1979–88), Chair of the Quality Assurance Committee and as an examiner.[3]

He has also held a number of positions with legal organizations, including the NSW Guardianship Board and the NSW Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Parker has sought to make the community more aware of depressive sub-types (especially melancholia) and the bipolar conditions (especially bipolar II disorder) via multiple TV, radio and print interviews and personalised programs (for instance, two ABC Australian Story [4] programs detailing nuances of bipolar II disorder).

During his time at the Black Dog Institute, Parker ‘translated’ research findings via educational programs – some with health professionals in mind and some shaped for the general community. Parker has also developed or evaluated a number of assessment and self-assessment tools to help practitioners and individuals to gauge the type and clinical import of a mood disorder. He has been mentor and supervisor to 22 higher degree students, with the majority continuing on to become distinguished full Professorial academic leaders and developing their own independent teams.

In addition to his hospital and private practices, Parker is the peer review consultant to The Lawson Clinic, an independent depression and bipolar clinic which has adopted the Black Dog Institute's sub-typing model of depression.

Awards and recognition

In 2004, Parker received a Citation Laureate from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) as the Australian Scientist most highly cited in the field of “Psychiatry/Psychology”. His citations currently exceed 35,000.

In 2008, Parker received a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission award for his book: “Journeys with the Black Dog”,[5] in 2010 his book “Tackling Depression at Work” was short-listed for a further Australian Human Rights Commission award, and in 2012 he was awarded a prize by the Australian Journal on Ageing for his book “Managing Depression Growing Older: A Guide for Professionals and Carers”.[6]

Lifetime awards include the RANZCP Senior Psychiatric Research Award (twice), Australasian Society of Psychiatric Research Founders Award, NSW Forensic Psychology Award, UNSW Alumni Award for Science and Technology, Suicide Prevention Lifetime Research Award, and Officer of the Order of Australia. In 2011, he was awarded the North Shore Times Community Medal in Medicine.

The University of NSW awards Scientia Professor status for those academics who have demonstrated "outstanding research performance." Parker was the first clinical academic to be awarded such status in 2000, for a five-year period, and subsequently for three further periods up until 2018.

Speaking invitations

International: Parker has been an invited keynote speaker at Annual Congresses of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in England and the American Psychiatric Association, at multiple Annual Congresses of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (or RANZCP), and at international scientific meetings.

National: Parker has spoken locally at The Sydney Institute, The Happiness Conference, The Festival of Dangerous Ideas and the Bellingen Writers Festival, and given an invited TEDx talk. He is an invited speaker at some twenty meetings per year to varying professional and community groups.

Publications: academic and non-academic

Parker has published more than 900 papers, over 600 in peer-reviewed journals; 70 book chapters; and written or edited 18 books. A complete list is available at the UNSW Faculty of Medicine website, Professor Gordon Barraclough Parker publications:[7]

Non-academic output

Parker has worked as a creative writer – writing for The Mavis Bramston Show, a cartoonist for Oz magazine and The Bulletin, and a book reviewer for major Australian newspapers. He was an ABC Science broadcaster in Sydney and in London. His play, Personality Games, was staged in 2004 at The Wharf Theatre in Sydney [8] and La Mama's Carlton Courthouse in Melbourne.[9]

Books

  • Bed and Bored, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1966.
  • The Bonds of Depression, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1978.
  • Parental Overprotection, Grune and Stratton, NY, 1983.
  • Some Rules for Killing People, Ellard J (Parker, ed.) Angus and Robertson, 1989.
  • Melancholia: A Disorder of Movement and Mood, (Parker & Hadzi-Pavlovic, eds) Cambridge University Press, NY, 1996.
  • Dealing with Depression: a common sense guide to mood disorders, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2002.
  • Modelling and Managing the Depressive Disorders, Parker and Manicavasagar, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005.
  • Journeys with the Black Dog, Wigney, Eyers & Parker, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2007.
  • Bipolar II Disorder: Modeling, Measuring and Managing. Cambridge University Press (1st edn, 2008.
  • Mastering Bipolar Disorder, Eyers and Parker, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2008.
  • Navigating Teenage Depression, Parker and Eyers, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2009.
  • Tackling Depression at Work, Eyers and Parker, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2010.
  • Managing Depression Growing Older, Eyers, Parker and Brodaty, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2012.
  • A Piece of My Mind: A Psychiatrist on the Couch, MacMillan, Sydney, 2012.
  • Bipolar II Disorder: Modelling, Measuring and Managing. Cambridge University Press (2nd edn), New York, 2012.
  • Overcoming Baby Blues, Parker, Eyers and Boyce, Allen & Unwin, Sydney 2014.
  • In Two Minds. A Novel, Ventura Press, Sydney 2017.

References

  1. ↑ A Piece of My Mind : A Psychiatrist on the Couch, MacMillan, Sydney, 2012
  2. ↑ Parker, G., Fink, M., Shorter, E., Taylor, M.A., Akiskal, H., Berrios, G., Bolwig, T., Brown, W.A., Carroll, B., Healy, D., Klein, D.F., Koukopoulos, A., Michels, R., Paris, J., Rubin, R.T., Spitzer, R., and Swartz, C. (2010). Editorial: Issues for DSM-5: Whither Melancholia? The Case for Its Classification as a Distinct Mood Disorder. Am J Psychiatry 167(7):745-747.
  3. ↑ Finlay-Jones, R. (1988). Editorial: Gordon Parker, Editor 1979-1987. Aust NZ J Psychiatry 22(1):10-11.
  4. ↑ Barrett, R (17 March 2010). "Push for melancholia to be listed as illness". abc.net.au. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  5. ↑ Donnelly, F. (2008) Reviews: Journeys with the Black Dog. BJ Psych Bulletin 32(11):440.
  6. ↑ Awarded at the AAG conference AGM, 22 November 2012, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
  7. ↑ "Select Publications: By Scientia Professor Gordon Barraclough Parker". University of New South Wales, Sydney. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  8. ↑ “Personality Games”, Sydney STC, Theatre I, The Wharf, Walsh Bay, 17 October 2004
  9. ↑ Personality Games, La Mama, Carlton, Victoria, 21 September 2004
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