Nancy C. Andreasen
Encyclopedia
Nancy Coover Andreasen is an American neuroscientist
and neuropsychiatrist
. She currently holds the Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa
Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
. During her early career, she was a student of the humanities. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska with majors in English, History, and Philosophy. She received her first doctoral degree, a Ph.D. in English literature, with support as both a Woodrow Wilson Fellow to Harvard and a Fulbright Fellow to Oxford. After completing her Ph.D., she became a Professor of Renaissance Literature in the Department of English at The University of Iowa. She published a variety of scholarly articles on John Donne and also published her first book in the field of Renaissance English literature: John Donne: Conservative Revolutionary
Andreasen, who is director of both the Iowa Mental Health Clinical Research Center and the Psychiatric Iowa Neuroimaging Consortium, is one of the world's foremost authorities on schizophrenia
. She has contributed to nosology and phenomenology by serving on both the DSM III and DSM IV Task Forces; she was chair of the Schizophrenia Work Group for DSM IV. She is largely responsible for development of the concept of negative symptoms in schizophrenia, having created the first widely-used scales for rating the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Early in her career she recognized that negative symptoms and associated cognitive impairments had more debilitating effects than psychotic symptoms (delusions and hallucinations). While psychotic symptoms represent an exaggeration of normal brain/mind functions, negative symptoms represent a loss of normal functions. For example, alogia is a loss of the ability to think and speak fluently, affective blunting is a loss of the ability to express emotions, avolition is a loss of the ability to initiate goal-directed activity, and anhedonia is a loss of the ability to experience emotions. The papers describing these concepts have become citation classics, as determined by the Science Citation Index
produced by the Institute for Scientific Information
.
Andreasen was a pioneer in the application of neuroimaging techniques to the study of major mental illnesses, having published the first quantitative Magnetic Resonance (MR study) of brain abnormalities in schizophrenia. Andreasen leads a multidisciplinary team working on three-dimensional image analysis techniques to integrate multi-modality imaging and to develop innovative methods for analyzing structural and functional imaging techniques in an automated manner. The software developed by this team is known as BRAINS (Brain Research: Analysis of Images, Networks, and Systems.
She also conducted the first modern empirical study of creativity that recognized some association between creativity and manic-depressive illness.
She has also written about the “neuroscience of creativity” in The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius. This book is the third in her "brain trilogy." The others are The Broken Brain: The Biological Revolution in Psychiatry and Brave New Brain: Conquering Mental Illness in the Era of the Genome.
, America’s highest award for scientific achievement. This award was given for
from the Belgian Academy of Science, the Lieber Schizophrenia Research Prize, and many awards from the American Psychiatric Association, including its Research Prize, the Judd Marmor Award, and the Distinguished Service Award. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 2002. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine
of the National Academy of Sciences
. She was elected to serve two terms on the governing council of the latter organization. She also chaired two Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences Committees that published influential reports. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Psychiatry, the leading journal in the field, for 13 years. She is past president of the American Psychopathological Association and the Psychiatric Research Society. She is a Fellow of the Society for Neuroscience and was the founding Chair of the Neuroscience Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.. She also heads the Honorary International Editorial Advisory Board of the Mens Sana Monographs
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
and neuropsychiatrist
Neuropsychiatry
Neuropsychiatry is the branch of medicine dealing with mental disorders attributable to diseases of the nervous system. It preceded the current disciplines of psychiatry and neurology, in as much as psychiatrists and neurologists had a common training....
. She currently holds the Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
Early life
Andreasen was born in Lincoln, NebraskaLincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
. During her early career, she was a student of the humanities. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska with majors in English, History, and Philosophy. She received her first doctoral degree, a Ph.D. in English literature, with support as both a Woodrow Wilson Fellow to Harvard and a Fulbright Fellow to Oxford. After completing her Ph.D., she became a Professor of Renaissance Literature in the Department of English at The University of Iowa. She published a variety of scholarly articles on John Donne and also published her first book in the field of Renaissance English literature: John Donne: Conservative Revolutionary
Clinical
A serious illness after the birth of her first daughter piqued an interest in medicine and biomedical research, however, and consequently she made the decision to change careers and devote her life to studying serious medical illnesses. She attended medical school at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, graduating in 1970 and completing her residency in psychiatry in 1973.Andreasen, who is director of both the Iowa Mental Health Clinical Research Center and the Psychiatric Iowa Neuroimaging Consortium, is one of the world's foremost authorities on schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
. She has contributed to nosology and phenomenology by serving on both the DSM III and DSM IV Task Forces; she was chair of the Schizophrenia Work Group for DSM IV. She is largely responsible for development of the concept of negative symptoms in schizophrenia, having created the first widely-used scales for rating the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Early in her career she recognized that negative symptoms and associated cognitive impairments had more debilitating effects than psychotic symptoms (delusions and hallucinations). While psychotic symptoms represent an exaggeration of normal brain/mind functions, negative symptoms represent a loss of normal functions. For example, alogia is a loss of the ability to think and speak fluently, affective blunting is a loss of the ability to express emotions, avolition is a loss of the ability to initiate goal-directed activity, and anhedonia is a loss of the ability to experience emotions. The papers describing these concepts have become citation classics, as determined by the Science Citation Index
Science Citation Index
The Science Citation Index is a citation index originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information and created by Eugene Garfield in 1960, which is now owned by Thomson Reuters. The larger version covers more than 6,500 notable and significant journals, across 150 disciplines, from ...
produced by the Institute for Scientific Information
Institute for Scientific Information
The Institute for Scientific Information was founded by Eugene Garfield in 1960. It was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare in 1992, became known as Thomson ISI and now is part of the Healthcare & Science business of the multi-billion dollar Thomson Reuters Corporation.ISI offered...
.
Andreasen was a pioneer in the application of neuroimaging techniques to the study of major mental illnesses, having published the first quantitative Magnetic Resonance (MR study) of brain abnormalities in schizophrenia. Andreasen leads a multidisciplinary team working on three-dimensional image analysis techniques to integrate multi-modality imaging and to develop innovative methods for analyzing structural and functional imaging techniques in an automated manner. The software developed by this team is known as BRAINS (Brain Research: Analysis of Images, Networks, and Systems.
She also conducted the first modern empirical study of creativity that recognized some association between creativity and manic-depressive illness.
She has also written about the “neuroscience of creativity” in The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius. This book is the third in her "brain trilogy." The others are The Broken Brain: The Biological Revolution in Psychiatry and Brave New Brain: Conquering Mental Illness in the Era of the Genome.
Honors
In 2000 President Clinton awarded her the National Medal of ScienceNational Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
, America’s highest award for scientific achievement. This award was given for
"her pivotal contributions to the social and behavioral sciences, through the integrative study of mind, brain, and behavior, by joining behavioral science with the technologies of neuroscience and neuroimaging in order to understand mental processes such as memory and creativity, and mental illnesses such as schizophrenia."She has received numerous other awards, including the Interbrew-Baillet-Latour Prize
Artois-Baillet Latour Foundation
The Artois-Baillet Latour Foundation is a non-profit organization which was founded on 1 March 1974 at the initiative of Count Alfred de Baillet Latour, who was the Director of the Artois Breweries in Leuven, Belgium...
from the Belgian Academy of Science, the Lieber Schizophrenia Research Prize, and many awards from the American Psychiatric Association, including its Research Prize, the Judd Marmor Award, and the Distinguished Service Award. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 2002. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
. She was elected to serve two terms on the governing council of the latter organization. She also chaired two Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences Committees that published influential reports. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Psychiatry, the leading journal in the field, for 13 years. She is past president of the American Psychopathological Association and the Psychiatric Research Society. She is a Fellow of the Society for Neuroscience and was the founding Chair of the Neuroscience Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.. She also heads the Honorary International Editorial Advisory Board of the Mens Sana Monographs
Mens Sana Monographs
The Mens Sana Monographs is an open-access peer-reviewed medical journal-cum-monographic series. It is Devoted to the Understanding of Medicine, Mental Health, Mind, Man and their Matrix. The Mens Sana Monographs (MSM) is an open-access peer-reviewed medical journal-cum-monographic series. It is...