Perminder Sachdev

Early life

Dr Sachdev was born in Ludhiana, India and went to school in Solan, in the foot-hills of the Himalayas [2]. He received his MBBS from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 1978, his MD in psychiatry from AIIMS in 1981, and his PhD in psychiatry from UNSW in 1991 [3]. He became a Fellow of the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (FRANZCP) in 1985 [3].

Clinical and research achievements

Dr Sachdev is the Clinical Director of the NPI at the Prince of Wales Hospital [4]. He has played a leading role in the development of higher training in Neuropsychiatry through his leadership of the International Neuropsychiatric Association (INA), and the Neuropsychiatry Section of the RANZCP [5]. The major contribution of the NPI to psychiatric research has been in the field of Movement disorders, such as drug-induced Akathisia, tardive dystonia, Neuroleptic malignant syndrome, Tourette Syndrome, golfer's cramp and Psychomotor retardation in Melancholia [6]. In particular, akathisia and its subtypes were characterised, including the development of a rating scale and research diagnostic criteria [7].

Other work has been in the areas of late-onset Schizophrenia [8] and secondary schizophrenia (including head injuries and schizophrenia-like psychosis) [9]. Dr Sachdev published the first negative study of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for depression [10], the first TMS treatment study of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) [11], and the first study that examined the effect of different frequencies of TMS on an animal model of depression [12].

Dr Sachdev's early research was in the field of Transcultural psychiatry, including descriptions of Maori ethnopsychiatric constructs such as mana-tapu-noa and whakama [13].

Since 1997, Dr Sachdev's major area of research has been cognitive disorders [14]. He is currently directing a number of longitudinal, community-based studies of brain ageing, including the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study (MAS), the Older Australian Twins Study (OATS), the Sydney Centenarian Study (SCS), and the Sydney Stroke Study (SSS) [15]. He is also a collaborator on one of the largest community based studies of brain imaging: the Australian PATH Through Life Study [16]. Sachdev has contributed to the diagnosis of dementia as a member of the Neurocognitive Disorders Workgroup for the DSM-5 [17]. He has also contributed to the field of epilepsy research as a member of the Task Force of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Neuropsychobiology Commission [18].

Honours and awards

In 2011, Dr Sachdev was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for "services to medical research in the field of neuropsychiatry, as a clinician and academic, and to professional associations at a national and international level" [19]. He has received numerous other awards, including the NSW Scientist of the Year in Biomedical Sciences (2010) [20] and the Organon Senior Research Award, Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) for the best research by an Australian or New Zealand psychiatrist in the previous five years (1995) [21]. He occupied the first chair of Neuropsychiatry in Australia [22].

Dr Sachdev is a Founding Executive committee member of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia [23]. He was elected President (2004–2006) of the International Neuropsychiatric Association [24]. Dr Sachdev was international advisor to the Psychosurgery Review Committee of the American Neurosurgical Society and a member of the F1000 Reports advisory board. He has served on the editorial board of a number of international peer-reviewed journals, including the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Treatment, Acta Neuropsychiatrica and Current Opinion in Psychiatry [25].