Thursday, March 20, 2008

A pioneer in psychiatry

Dr. Frank J. Ayd Jr., a Baltimore psychiatrist who pioneered the field of psychopharmacology when he began treating schizophrenics with Thorazine in the early 1950s, died in his sleep Monday at Lorien Mays Chapel Health Care Center. He was 87.

At a time when the psychiatric establishment rejected the notion that mental illness was rooted in biology, Dr. Ayd championed the use of medications to adjust brain chemistry and, in so doing, relieve a patient's suffering.

"He was a biological psychiatrist, one of the important kinds of people who in spite of - and against - the establishment had the guts to stand up and really do things," said Dr. Thomas Ban, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

"Many people claim pioneering, but he really was. He entered the field when the whole thing started."

Dr. Philip G. Janicak, a Chicago psychiatrist and editor of International Drug Therapy Newsletter, said, "Dr. Ayd was one of the founding fathers of modern psychiatry. He changed the direction of psychiatry."

Dr. Janicak added: "He saw the potential value of medications to treat serious psychiatric disorders."

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