Rich In History: UTMB

The Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has a rich history of patient care, education and research. The department was one of the first to emphasize biological psychiatry and has remained a national leader in this area. In addition, the first psychoanalytic training program in the Southwest was established here at UTMB.
Among more recent accomplishments are research programs on the causes and treatment of severe psychiatric illnesses, the effect of brain function on the endocrine and immune system, and the problems of impulse control and violence. The department actively participated in the DSM IV field trials.

Our teaching program is one of the nation's most successful: Over the past two decades, UTMB has consistently graduated more students who have chosen psychiatry than most other medical schools. The department was first in the Southwest to institute a psychiatric residency training program. The department had become certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology as a graduate training center in 1930.
The Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry was created in 1960, and in 1964 UTMB opened the first inpatient children's psychiatric unit in a public hospital in the state of Texas. That same year a 1 0-bed unit for adolescents was opened.
Since 1968 the department has developed a number of other clinical programs such as those in consultation and liaison psychiatry; a mood and anxiety disorders program; geriatric psychiatry, including a recently established day treatment program; and a nationally recognized program in forensic psychiatry.
In 1974 the Department of Psychiatry & Neurology became the Department of Psychiatry. In 1978 the department was renamed the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and in 1982 expanded into the newly-constructed Mary Moody Northen Pavilion, a five-story structure that currently houses adult inpatient units, child and adolescent inpatient units and day treatment programs.

Aerial view of UTMB