Department of Psychiatry

Welcome to the UIC Department of Psychiatry.

Since its early beginnings in the 1890s, our Department has an esteemed history of providing outstanding service in meeting the mental health needs of the people of Chicago, the State of Illinois, and beyond. From the beginning, clinical services have been enhanced by a strong tradition of excellence in psychiatric research that includes basic neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, health services, and interventions. Education is another strong domain in the Department and our programs have been consistently informed by the most current and innovative thinking in the field of psychiatry.

Our approximately seventy-five full-time faculty members include MD psychiatrists, psychologists, basic scientists, sociologists, and biostatisticians. In addition, we have Licensed Clinical Social Workers and Advanced Practice Nurses providing direct clinical care. The Department of Psychiatry supports approximately 40,000 outpatient visits per year, a 36-bed adult inpatient unit in the main teaching hospital and a 9-bed adolescent inpatient unit designated solely for children through the Department of Child and Family Services) at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System. Overall, the Department is one of the largest psychiatry programs in the Midwest.

Nationally, the Department consistently ranks in the top 20 range in National Institutes of Health funded research, as well as first in Chicago and in the top three the Midwest. Major strengths include an NIH funded P50 Center focusing on epigenetics research in alcohol research (CARE), two services related Centers funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and a Multi-site, collaborative “U” grant that is focused on interventions in adolescents with substance abuse.

In addition to senior and mid-level researchers, we offer competitive training programs and post-doctoral fellowships in many aspects of mental health research.  Our psychiatry residency is one of the most competitive programs in the Midwest and offers both research and a clinician educator track. Our training programs include a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry, addiction psychiatry and addiction medicine, and behavioral neurology & neuropsychiatry. In addition, we offer an enriched experience in women’s mental health to our residents. We recently developed a combined Psychiatry – Family Medicine residency program - one of only six in the nation.

Excellence in research has gone hand-in-hand with rigorous and comprehensive education programs which have trained generations of mental health professionals to the highest standards of compassionate and ethical patient care.

The Department hosts two major institutes - the Institute for Juvenile Research (IJR) that is focused on community-based research in adolescents and an Institute on Neuroscience.  We are the primary Chicago node for the National Network for Depression Centers (NNDC) – an umbrella entity that includes major departments of psychiatry nationally with research and clinical interests in depression. Professor Ajilore in our Department is the founding director of the Institute on Translational Neuroscience in our College of Medicine. Departmental faculty are well represented in leadership roles in the College of Medicine including directing the Center for Global Health, Associate Dean for Admissions, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs.

We have several strong clinical collaborations and partnerships with departments within UI Health. These include the Departments of Neurology, Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Surgery. These include jointly run clinics, collaborative care and embedded clinic models of care. These partnerships have been productive from both clinical and teaching perspectives. Our women’s mental health program has a national reputation and is recognized for innovative mental health services both locally and regionally.

Faculty have joint appointments with medical center and campus-wide Departments and colleges including with the College of Engineering, Department of Psychology, and the Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Radiology, and Physiology and Biophysics.

Several faculty members are national leaders in their respective fields. The Department’s faculty and research staff are well represented in national scientific and professional societies including the Veterans Administration, NIMH Advisory Council, and numerous NIH review committees. Articles published by our faculty regularly appear in such top-tier journals as JAMA, Molecular Psychiatry, PNAS, American Journal of Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, Academic Psychiatry, Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, Nature, and Biological Psychiatry.

In combination, the Department has developed a comprehensive and integrated approach to address major psychiatric disorders and to improve diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illness. These include programs in adult and pediatric bipolar disorders, first episode psychosis, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. Expertise developed in child and community psychiatry has enabled screening for children in the public school system at risk for schizophrenia and bipolar illness. Anxiety disorder research has led to one of the Midwest’s strongest programs for combined pharmacological and cognitive behavior therapies.

We are also looking forward to the future with efforts in community psychiatry, neuroscience, and translational research. With this strong foundation, we are well positioned to participate in many new and exciting developments in the area of mental health and behavior.

This is a record of achievement and ongoing effort of which we are very proud, particularly as we witness the courageous progress of our patients and their families. I encourage you to explore our website to learn more about our activities and the great people behind our success.