Massachusetts General Hospital | Psychiatry

Biography

Dr. Nierenberg is Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Co-Director of the Bipolar Clinic and Research Program, and Associate Director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He attended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University followed by a residency in psychiatry at New York University/Bellevue Hospital and then became a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale University. In 1992, he joined the Psychiatry Department at MGH. He has published over 250 original articles and over 60 reviews, editorials, and chapters, and has been listed among the Best Doctors in North America for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders continuously since 1994. He received the NDMDA Gerald L. Klerman Young Investigator Award and was elected as a member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. His primary interests are treatment resistant depression, bipolar depression, and the longitudinal course of mood disorders. Dr. Nierenberg lectures nationally and internationally, teaches and supervises clinicians and researchers, maintains an active clinical practice, conducts clinical trials, and is Editor in Chief of CNS Spectrums as well as on the editorial boards of multiple psychiatric journals.

Research

Dr. Nierenberg has over 25 years of experience in conducting clinical trials in mood disorders. He is the Director of the NIMH Bipolar Trials Network and PI of its associated Lithium Moderate Dose Use Study (LiTMUS). He was on the management teams of the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) and the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D), which combined included over 8,000 participants and cost over $60 million. Dr. Nierenberg leads as the Principal Investigator on both industry and government funded projects, as well as collaborates with investigators on a national and international level. His major research interests include pharmacologic treatment and course of treatment resistant depression; bipolar depression; phenomenology, longitudinal course, and treatment of mood disorders; and the management of antidepressant-associated adverse events.

Massachusetts General Hospital leading nationwide, comparative study of common bipolar medications

The Massachusetts General Hospital Bipolar Clinic and Research Program is launching a 10-site nationwide trial evaluating the real-world advantages and disadvantages of second generation mood stabilizing medications compared to lithium.