Paul R. McHugh

Paul McHugh, MD
Born	1931 USA
Occupation(s)	Psychiatrist, Medical Educator

Paul R. McHugh (born 1931, Lawrence, Massachusetts) is an American psychiatrist. He is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and author of several books within his field.

Education

Paul R. McHugh graduated from Harvard College in 1952 and from Harvard Medical School in 1956. While at Harvard he was "introduced to and ultimately directed away from the Freudian school of psychiatry."^[1]

Following medical school, McHugh's education was influenced by George Thorn, the Physician-in-Chief at the Harvard-affiliated Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women's Hospital). Thorn was disillusioned with Freudian psychiatry and felt that those who devoted themselves to it became single-minded, failing to grow as doctors. Thorn encouraged McHugh to develop a different career path, suggesting that he enter the field of psychiatry by first studying neurology. At Thorn's recommendation, McHugh was accepted into the neurology program at the Massachusetts General Hospital where he studied for three years under Dr. Raymond Adams, the chief of the Neurology Department.^[2]

From Massachusetts General, McHugh went to the Institute of Psychiatry in London (where he studied under Sir Aubrey Lewis and was supervised by James Gibbons and Gerald Russell) then to the Division of Neuropsychiatry at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. .^[3]

Career

After his training, McHugh held various academic and administrative positions: Professor of Psychiatry at Cornell University School of Medicine, Clinical Director and Director of Residency Education at the New York Hospital Westchester Division; Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Oregon Health Sciences Center at the University of Oregon.

Subsequently, he was the Henry Phipps Professor of Psychiatry and the director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Johns Hopkins University, and psychiatrist-in-chief at the Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1975 to 2001. He is currently University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.^[1]

His book, The Perspectives of Psychiatry, co-authored with Phillip R. Slavney, presents the framework of thought that has characterized his department.

His own research has focused on the neuroscientific foundations of motivated behaviors, psychiatric genetics, epidemiology, and neuropsychiatry.

In 1975, McHugh co-authored (along with M. F. Folstein and S. E. Folstein) a paper entitled "Mini-Mental State: A Practical Method for Grading the Cognitive State of Patients for the Clinician." This paper details the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE), an exam consisting of just eleven questions. The exam quickly and accurately assesses patients for signs of dementia and other states of cognitive impairment. It is one of the most widely used tests in the mental health field.

On January 11, 2010, McHugh made a motion to file a brief of amicus curiae on behalf of the defendants in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger. The motion stated: "Amicus seeks to provide information to this Court bearing on its decision of whether to endorse a legal declaration that orientation is a fixed and immutable characteristic similar to race or gender. In the proposed brief, Amicus points out two highly relevant facts: (1) there is no scientific consensus on what homosexuality is, and the number of people who fit in the class “gay and lesbian” varies widely, depending on which definition of homosexuality is used and (2) there is no scientific consensus that homosexuality is exclusively or primarily genetic in origin.^[4]

Books by Paul R. McHugh

• Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind (2008)
• The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry (2005)
• Last Call: Alcoholism and Recovery (2007) (Jack H. Hedblom, first author)
• Sexual Disorders: Perspectives on Diagnosis and Treatment (Peter J. Fagan, first author)
• Understanding Sleeplessness: Perspectives on Insomnia (David N. Neubauer, first author)
• Genes, Brain, and Behavior, 1990 (book edited with V. A McKusick)
• The Perspectives of Psychiatry (1998)

Notes

[1] McHugh, P. R. (2008). Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. New York, DANA, p. 26

^[2] ---. pp. 26-29.

^[3], ---.p. 31.

External links

• Paul R. McHugh's profile at USCCB website.