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= Jan Fawcett = Born March 31, 1934 (age 80) March 31, 1934, Jamestown, New York

Education: M.D. at Yale University School of Medicine

Alma mater: University of Rochester

Known for: Clinical Treatment of Refractory Depression, Link between Severe Anxiety and Suicide

Jan A. Fawcett (born March 31, 1934) is an American psychiatrist, educator, and author.

His research career has focused on the mechanism of action of anti depressant medications and the discovery of more effective medications for severe depression as well as treatment modifiable factors leading up to suicide.

Fawcett is currently a professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico Medical Center. He was previously the Stanley Harris Jr. Chairman of Psychiatry at the Rush University Medical Center for 30 years.

He has received numerous national and international awards for his research, including the Anna Monika Award the Dr. Jan Fawcett Humanitarian Award, and several others.

Fawcett has served as the president of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He was also a contributing author for DSM-V and a member of the scientific board of the Brain and Behavioral Research Foundation.

Early life and education
Fawcett was born in Jamestown, New York. He was educated at a public school and Hamburg High School in Hamburg, NY. He spent two years at the Naval Academy at Annapolis before earning a bachelors degree in science at the University of Rochester in 1956, He went on to earn his medical degree at Yale Medical School in 1960. After a rotating internship year at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in San Francisco, CA, he became a resident in psychiatry at the University of California’s Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute. He then graduated from two additional years of residency at the University of Rochester – Strong Memorial Hospital. He then went on for a two year research fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health at Bethesda, MD. It was here that he began his career in the clinical research of depression and suicide.

Psychopharmacologic Treatment of Depression
Fawcett’s initial work was inspired by the development of the first anti depressant medications, e.g. amipramine and MAOIs. He began doing research with the effects of dextroamphetamine on mood which, unlike the anti-depressant medications, showed a response within hours. He was fascinated by the fact that dextroamphetamine worked rapidly with the patients it helped while amipramine took weeks to show its effects. This was complimented by studies of the metabolism of brain norepinephrine in depressed patients as inspired by James Mass M.D. This led him to combine stimulants with MAOIs in patients with treatment refractory depression.

Severe Anxiety and Suicide
Fawcett was the first to identify the prevalence of anxiety in major depression (even though anxiety is not a criteria symptom for the diagnosis of depression). (Fawcett/Kravitz 1983)

Fawcett worked as a principal investigator of the Rush site of the collaborative depression study. This led him to the opportunity to do one of the few prospective studies of suicide over a 16-25 year follow up period. Studying suicide prospectively enabled Fawcett to find new short term predictors of suicide that, severe anxiety which could be modified by treatment. The severe anxiety/suicide link as it relates to suicide has been replicated by subsequent studies, although there has been no studies that have attempted to look at the capacity of acute treatment to prevent suicide.

Dopamenergic Medications for Refractory Depression
Having found the effectiveness of combining psychostimulants and MAOIs in 1991, Fawcett began studying the effects of a dopaminergic agent used to treat Parkinson’s Disease, (pramipexole) in treatment refractory depression in 2008. He has since found that doses of pramipexole when pushed to tolerance in individual patients, will reverse depressions which have failed to respond to multiple anti depressant medications and even ECT.

Expert Witness Testimonies
Fawcett’s opinion has been sought on numerous high profile cases throughout the years. Notably, he interviewed and provided a psychological profile of serial killer John Wayne Gacy after meeting with him in his cell.

He also testified against Dr. Jack Kevorkian during his murder trial. Fawcett opined that the individuals with non-fatal illnesses who sought Kevorkian’s services were actually depressed and that treating their depression might’ve alleviated their desires to die.

Fawcett has also provided testimony in innumerable cases of wrongful death or malpractice related to patients who committed suicide.

Personal life
He currently enjoys writing fiction and is working on the sequel to his first science fiction novel, Living Forever.

He has four children and four grandchildren. Fawcett and his wife, Katie Busch M.D., live in Santa Fe, NM.

Fawcett was inspired by the work of Roy Grinker Sr. M.D. and his mentors William Bunney M.D. and James Mass M.D.

Publications

 * New Hope for People with Bipolar Disorders 2003
 * Living Forever 2013
 * (1975). Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-0752-7. (Paperback reprint edition, W.H. Freeman, 1992, ISBN 0-7167-2328-X)
 * (1991). Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-671-01911-2. (Paperback reprint edition, Penguin Books, 1998; reissue edition, Free Press, 1998)
 * (1993). What You Can Change and What You Can't: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-679-41024-4. (Paperback reprint edition, Ballantine Books, 1995, ISBN 0-449-90971-9
 * (1996). The Optimistic Child: Proven Program to Safeguard Children from Depression & Build Lifelong Resilience. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0091831199. (Paperback edition, Harper Paperbacks, 1996, ISBN 0-06-097709-4
 * (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2297-0. (Paperback edition, Free Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7432-2298-9)
 * (Spring 2004). "Can Happiness be Taught?". Daedalus' 133' (2): 80–87. doi:10.1162/001152604323049424.
 * Peterson, Christopher; Seligman, Martin E.P. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195167015.
 * (2011). Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-1-4391-9075-3.