Department of Clinical Research

Annual Reports, 1982-1991 and book about the Department produced to mark its Jubilee, 1991.

1982-1991

1 box

The Department of Clinical Research was established in 1939 with the appointment of Dr W. Mayer-Gross as Director. Although laboratory investigations and pathological work had been carried out at the Crichton since the 1870s, it was the arrival of Dr C. C. Easterbrook and his proposal for the establishment of a laboratory that moved things forward. In 1908 the Board of Direction adopted a scheme creating three Crichton Fellowships in Clinical Neurology and Psychiatry, Pathology and Chemistry and Pathology and Bacteriology. Only one of these Fellowships, Neurology and Psychiatry, was filled in 1909. The laboratory was moved into Johnston House in 1910 coinciding with a study tour, made by a special committee which included Dr C. C. Easterbrook, to Europe to look at asylums, hospitals, clinics and laboratories. This led to a refit of the laboratory which was completed in 1913. The Fellowship scheme did not take off and the one appointee left post soon after joining, as a result the post of pathologist and clinical pathologist was created. With the arrival of Dr P. K. McCowan as Physician Superintendent in 1937 the research facilities were expanded and the Department was established with the appointment of Dr W. Mayer-Gross in June 1939. The work carried out by the Department reflected the specialities and interests of the Directors, with Dr W. Mayer-Gross it was biological psychiatry with the progression of physical treatments including Insulin Coma Therapy and prefrontal leucotomies. His successor Dr A. Tait, who served as Director from 1954-1966, worked alongside Dr Archie Todrick, Biochemist, in biochemical and pharmacological research. He was followed by Dr J. Crawford Little who served as Director from 1966-1981, during which time there was a focus on social psychiatry. Dr R. G. McCreadie became Director in 1981 and focussed on the study of schizophrenia.

Minutes and Special Reports, DGH1/2/1/6/1; Annual Reports, DGH1/2/2; Report by Hugh Gladstone, DGH1/2/4/1/2; Staff Publications, DGH1/6/18.

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