Clinical Trials of Antidepressants

Martin M. Katz received his A.B. degree in Chemistry at Brooklyn College and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas in Psychology and Physiology. From 1958 to 1968, he served in the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH as Executive Secretary of its first Psychopharmacology Advisory Committee, then, in 1965, as Head of its Special Studies section in Psychopharmacology. In 1968 he was appointed Chief, of the Institute’s Clinical Research Branch, a new program charged with expanding research on the causes and treatment of schizophrenia and the affective disorders. It initiated national conferences and developed Collaborative Programs on the Psychobiology of Depression laying the groundwork for the new DSM and large scale testing of the new biochemical theories of the genesis of the disorders. The Biology and Clinical Collaborative Programs created by Dr. Katz and Branch Staff (1970-1978), were responsible for the training of many young investigators, and provided needed methodology for expanding research in these fields. The Clinical Aspect of the Program was still, thirty years later, in operation under an NIMH grant. In 1984, he joined the Psychiatry faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine as Professor establishing the first Division of Psychology and Laboratory of Psychopathology at the College. Since 1996, he has been Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he has conducted grant-supported research on the “Biological Aspects of Depression” and the neurobehavioral mechanisms of action of antidepressant drugs.