Allan Tasman, MD, Receives Award for Psychiatric Research

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Allan Tasman, MD, Editor in Chief Emeritus of Psychiatric Times, has been awarded for his contributions regarding mental health disparities due to social determinant factors like socioeconomics and culture. Tasman was honored by the Hartford HealthCare Institute of Living with the 2024 C. Charles Burlingame, MD, award. The award was presented at a ceremony in October 2024 where Tasman presented the lecture that won the award, “The Social Determinants of Mental Health: Bringing the Social Back into the Biophysical Model.”¹

Tasman is the founder of the Lexington Free Clinic, as well as Emeritus professor, chair (1991-2015), and Schwab Endowed Chair in Social and Community Psychiatry at the University of Louisville. He is also the former president of the American Psychiatric Association.

Tasman served as the Psychiatric Times editor in chief from September 2014 to January 2019. His most recent piece for the publication, authored by him and Kenneth S. Thompson, MD, discusses the social determinants of mental health and the future of psychiatry. The pair discuss cases they have experienced and how social determinants changed the diagnosis or treatment plan for patients they were seeing. Moving forward, the authors say the psychiatric field must lead the charge.

“Much of our income results in part from the suffering our society generates. To not recognize and respond to this fact risks making us complicit with the inequities we see every day,”² Tasman and Thompson wrote.

Throughout his tenure as editor in chief at Psychiatric Times, he wrote extensively in support of patients and discussed how best psychiatric clinicians and the powers that be in the medical field can support patients. In an editorial discussing empathy for patients from doctors, he wrote, “And all of us, whether in solo or group practice, office, community health center, or hospital, in teaching or non-teaching settings, struggle to not only maintain, but even better, maximize our empathic capacity and to teach others how to do the same.”³

His research has focused on the neurophysiology of cognitive processes, and his lab in Connecticut was one of the first to describe functional brain abnormalities in offspring of alcohol addict fathers. Recent research of his involves neuromodulation treatments for autism and substance abuse.¹ He is a professor at University of Louisville and has founded 2 scientific journals: The Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research and Asia-pacific Psychiatry.⁵

The award is named after C. Charles Burlingame, who joined The Hartford Retreat in 1931 as superintendent and transformed the program into a model community for patients to receive treatment and relearn skills used in daily life. The award was established in 1988 to recognize outstanding leadership and lifetime achievement in psychiatric research and education.¹ Tasman’s research aligns with Burlingame’s efforts to foster research of mental illness and the mind and the continuing education of mental health professionals.

References

1. Allan Tasman, MD receives 2024 institute of living Burlingame award. News release. Hartford HealthCare Institute of Living. October 2024. Accessed January 7, 2024. https://instituteofliving.org/health-professionals/for-physicians/c-charles-burlingame-award

2. Tasman A, Thompson K. This is the water: the social determinants of mental health and the future of psychiatry. Psychiatric Times. January 5, 2022. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/this-is-the-water-the-social-determinants-of-mental-health-and-the-future-of-psychiatry

3. Tasman A. I feel your pain, actually, really? Psychiatric Times. September 21, 2017. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/i-feel-your-pain-actually-really

4. Allan Tasman, M.D. University of Louisville School of Medicine. Accessed January 6, 2025. https://louisville.edu/medicine/departments/psychiatry/faculty/tasman

5. Allan Tasman, M.D. American Psychiatric Association Foundation. Accessed January 6, 2025. https://www.apaf.org/library-archives/president-s-of-the-apa/allan-tasman-m-d/