By Martin M.Katz

The National Advisory Committee on Psychopharmacology was established in 1956 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to guide a new program of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) that would stimulate research in the new science of psychopharmacology. The new program was implemented with the establishment of the Psychopharmacology Service Center (PSC) from the 2 million dollars allocated in 1956 by the US Congress to the NIH in response to the discovery of new drugs for the treatment of mental disorders. The Committee consisted of expert psychiatrists, pharmacologists, psychologists and statisticians. Its members included Louis Goodman (Pharmacology), Seymour Kety (Biological Science), Nathan Kline (Psychiatry), Morton Kramer (Biostatistics) and Joseph Zubin (Psychology). The appointed Chairman of the Committee was Ralph Gerard; the Executive Secretary, Martin Katz (Katz 2011). The role of the Committee was to both guide the activities of the PSC, its leader, Jonathon Cole and staff, in implementing the program initiatives, and to review applications for research grants from outside investigators in the field (Cole 2011). . In the early 1960’s, most of the Committee’s research grant review function was transferred from the NIMH to the NIH. Its prime function, following the PSC becoming the Psychopharmacology Research Branch in 1965, was to advise on ongoing and planned clinical research goals of the psychopharmacology program.

Cole JO interviewed by Ban TA in An Oral History of Neuropsychopharmacology - The First Fifty Years:  Peer Interviews (Thomas A. Ban, editor), Volume 10- "History of the ACNP” (Martin M. Katz, volume editor). Nashville: American College of Neuropsychopharmacology; 2011. p. 45-53.

Katz MM interviewed by Ban TA in An Oral History of Neuropsychopharmacology - The First Fifty Years:  Peer Interviews (Thomas A. Ban, editor), Volume 10- "History of the ACNP” (Martin M. Katz, volume editor). Nashville: American College of Neuropsychopharmacology; 2011. p. 77-81.

Martin M. Katz

November 6, 2014