Gordon Parker (psychiatrist)

Gordon Parker is Scientia Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales, specializing in clinical research in mental health in particular depression and bipolar disorder.

Early life and education

Parker completed an MB BS at Syd and a MD 1978, PhD 1983, DSc 1997 from University of New South Wales.

Career

In 1983 Parker became the head of the School of Psychiatry at University of New South Wales, and remained in this position until 2002. During that period he was also a part-time Research Director at the Institute of Mental Health (Singapore). Parker was director of the division of psychiatry at the Prince of Wales Hospital and the Prince Henry Hospital. He was a member of the International Advisory Board of the DSM-IV Task Force for Mood Disorders, and Personality Disorders. He was also a member of the New South Wales Guardianship Board, and the New South WalesAdministrative Appeals Tribunal.

He founded the Black Dog Institute, an organization based at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, New South Wales, that focuses on the treatment of mood disorders, in particular clinical depression and bipolar disorder. In 2010 he became an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Parker is a FRANZCP

Parker is a critic of the current unitary classification of major depressive disorder in the current DSM IV-TR paradigm, and has proposed the revival of the old diagnosis of melancholia. Parker is the peer review consultant to The Lawson Clinic, an independent epression and bipolar clinic which has adopted the Black Dog Institute's sub-typing Model of Depression.

See also

• Journeys with the Black Dog

External links

• Black Dog Institute