Igor Galynker

Education and work in chemistry

Igor Galynker MD PhD was born in Moscow, USSR. His mother, Raya, was an internist and his father, Ilya, was a professor of textile engineering. They met and married in Voronezh before World War II and moved to Moscow after the war ended. In 1971 Galynker graduated from Moscow's Public School #109 as valedictorian, and in 1976 he graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Department of Chemistry at Moscow State University.

He immigrated to the United States in 1978, and after working for one year as a chemist researcher at the CIBA-Geigy corporation, he began his graduate studies (1978-1981) in organic synthesis under professor W. Clark Still at Columbia University. His PhD thesis, which earned the Hammet Award for outstanding research, described the first use of computer modeling in organic synthesis and has subsequently been widely cited. After completing a fellowship in human genetics at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Galynker taught chemistry at Purdue University and at Columbia University.

Work in psychiatry and Mount Sinai Beth Israel

Galynker received his medical degree in 1988 from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he was elected into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and completed his psychiatry residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He has since worked at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan (currently Mount Sinai Beth Israel), where he is the Associate Chairman for Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the Director of the Division of Biological Psychiatry, and the director of the Zirinsky Mood Disorders Center and the Family Center for Bipolar.

In the Department, Galynker created a residency research program, which requires all psychiatry residents to learn the research process and complete a research project. He also founded and ran the Russian Health Service and is a Patient Experience Physician Advocate at Beth Israel. He was awarded the Patient Experience Excellence Award and has been listed in the America's Top Psychiatrists list as well as in the Top New York Physicians "Superdoctors" list.

Richard and Cynthia Zirinsky Center for Bipolar

In 2006, Galynker founded the Family Center for Bipolar (FCB), which is part of the Zirinsky Mood Disorders Center and is a clinical and research center treating children, adolescents, and adults. The Center has become a Center of Excellence in the Mount Sinai Health System and has been profiled in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. In 2015, the Family Center for Bipolar was officially renamed the Richard and Cynthia Zirinsky Center for Bipolar, in honor of a gift from the Zirinsky Family.

Cognition

While working as a resident psychiatrist, Galynker was the first to report that both hospital admissions from the ER and the duration of hospital stay in the acute psychiatric unit was influenced by cognition, suggesting that in addition to psychiatric symptoms, cognitive dysfunction should be a target of pharmacological intervention. This work anticipated later focus on treatment of cognitive dysfunction and cognitive training in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder Galynker later reported on persistent cognitive deficits in opiate addicts in methadone maintenance treatment

Addictions

While in residency working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Galynker synthesized [11-C]-buprenorphine for use in PET studies of opiate addiction. He later published PET studies of remitted opiate addicts which showed that cognitive deficits, negative affect, and abnormal glucose metabolism present during active drug use persisted for months and years after detoxification from methadone. With Dr. Lisa Cohen, Galynker later showed that behavioral sex addicts, such as male pedophiles, had deficits in glucose metabolism in the temporal cortex and severe character pathology that was similar but broader and more pronounced than that of the opiate-dependent subjects. In a subsequent series of reports, Cohen and Galynker described character pathology of pedophiles and other sex offenders and proposed a model for the etiology of pedophilic behavior.

Mood disorders

In 1998 Galynker published a widely cited SPECT study of cerebral perfusion in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), which showed that in MDD, reduced cerebral blood flow was associated with negative symptoms rather than mood. This was one of the first imaging studies to demonstrate that cerebral function was not related to a specific diagnosis but to symptoms, a finding which echoed Galynker's early findings on cognitive deficits and patient function, as well as the current NIMH Research Domain Criteria Project. Galynker was also the first to report (in a case series) that low dose quetiapine and risperidone were effective for treatment of depression and anxiety a finding later supported by randomized clinical trials, leading to quetiapine approval for these indications.

Suicide

Another line of Galynker's research is suicide prevention. In 2010, with Dr. Zimri Yaseen he described a pre-suicidal state, the Suicide Trigger State, characterized by two patterns of thought and feeling: ruminative flooding and frantic hopelessness. This finding was later replicated in two other studies and modified scores on the STS scales were predictive of a suicide attempt within two months. In 2011, with Curren Katz he identified panic attacks as an independent risk factor for suicide attempts. Yaseen and Galynker also identified panic attacks with fear of dying as a specific risk factor for future suicide attempts. Galynker has recently developed a clinical tool called MARIS (Modular Assessment of Risk for Imminent Suicide). MARIS is a two-part assessment that has data showing it can identify people at immediate risk for suicide. MARIS is unique in that both patient and clinician provide information. This project is funded by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Media and public awareness

Galynker has been outspoken in his concerns about possible conflicts of interest between psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical industry. In 2005, he showed that the results of pharmaceutical trials published in even the most reputable scientific journals, JAMA Psychiatry and the American Journal of Psychiatry, systematically favored the drug produced by the manufacturer that paid for the study and disfavored the competitor. This study was profiled on the front page of USA Today. Galynker has also been concerned with the harmful consequences of family exclusion from psychiatric treatment, which he associated with an increased risk of violence and suicide as well as poor outcomes His opinions on the role of family (and staff) in preventing campus violence and reducing student suicide risks have been published by ABC News, the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Galynker has written an acclaimed book, Talking to Families About Mental Illness, on how to involve family in psychiatric treatment.

Galynker uses media appearances to educate the public about mental illness and mental health, aiming to reduce and ultimately eliminate the stigma of mental illness. His opinions on many topics related to mental illness and mental health have been cited by abcnews.com, aolhealth.com, The Associated Press, cnn.com, The Daily News, gawker.com, Le Generaliste, health.com, JAMA, lifescript.com, The New York Times, Newsday, PrimaryCareClinician.com, Psychiatric Times, Psychopharmacology Update, wired.com, and The Wall Street Journal.