Wayne C. Drevets, M.D. is the Chief of the Section on Neuroimaging of Mood and Anxiety Disorders at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Drevets received a B.S. (Biology) degree from Wheaton College, an M.D. degree from the University of Kansas, and residency training in psychiatry at Washington University Medical School. He then joined the Washington University Department of Psychiatry faculty, ultimately attaining the rank of tenured Associate Professor. During these years he conducted positron emission tomography (PET) imaging studies of mood and anxiety disorders under the mentorship of Dr. Marcus Raichle, supported initially by a NIMH trainee fellowship, and later by a NIMH Scientist Development Award. He subsequently moved to the University of Pittsburgh, where he continued to conduct psychiatric neuroimaging research and acquired additional training in the application of PET to neuroreceptor imaging, while supported by a NIMH Independent Scientist Award. In 2001, Dr. Drevets joined the NIMH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program. He is currently involved in research employing PET and MRI technologies to characterize the neurophysiological, receptor pharmacological, and neuroanatomical correlates of mood and anxiety disorders.

      Dr. Drevets’ research has been funded by project and career development grants from the NIH, Private Foundations, and the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Drevets is a previous recipient of the Rennselaer Award in Mathematics and Science, the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Award for Excellence in Psychiatry, the Young Investigator and Independent Investigator Awards from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, and is listed in the Best Doctors in America. He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and the Society for Biological Psychiatry, and serves on the Editorial Board for the journals, Biological Psychiatry and Emotion.

      Dr. Drevets has published extensively on brain areas where physiology, cortex volume, and/or serotonin receptor binding are abnormal in major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. Major themes of Dr. Drevets’ publications have involved: 1) distinguishing abnormalities which persist across mood states from those that are mood-state dependent; 2) comparing the functional anatomical correlates of the major depressive syndrome with those of normal emotional responses elicited in healthy subjects, and of other pathological emotional states associated with anxiety disorders; 3) using neuroimaging data to identify phenotypic differences between mood disorder subtypes; 4) delineating neural circuits in which dysfunction at various points may lead to the development of abnormal mood episodes; 5) investigating the neural mechanisms of antidepressant and mood stabilizing treatments, 6) exploring the relationship between functional and structural abnormalities of the brain in mood disorders, and 7) employing the results of brain imaging studies to guide neuropathological studies of clinically-similar, subjects studied post mortem.

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