Myrna Weissman is a Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Mailman School of Public health at Columbia University and Chief of the Division of Translational Epidemiology at New York State Psychiatric Institute. Along with her late husband Gerald Klerman, Dr. Weissman developed Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), an evidence-based treatment for depression. Now with over 140 clinical trials, IPT has been translated into numerous languages and recommended by the WHO and the US Preventive Task Force of Perinatal Depression as one of the leading evidence-based psychotherapy treatments. Her research focuses on understanding the prevalence and risk factors of mood disorders in families through epidemiology, genetics, and neuroimaging, and the application of these findings to develop and test empirically based treatments and preventive interventions.
Dr. Weissman received a Ph.D. in chronic disease epidemiology from Yale University School of Medicine in 1974. In 2009, she was recognized by the American College of Epidemiology as one of the top 10 epidemiologists in the United States who have significantly impacted public policy and health. She received the Brain and Behavior Pardes Humanitarian Award in 2020, the Research Award from the American Psychiatric Association in 2021, and the Research Award for mood disorders from the American College of Psychiatrists in 2023, achieving an H-index of 182 that same year. In 2024, she received the Women in Legacy Foundation Alma Dea Morani Award for excellence in medicine and the medical sciences. That same year, Dr. Weissman and collaborators, including Dr. Jennifer Mootz, published “Interpersonal Psychotherapy: A Global Reach,” which describes the use of interpersonal psychotherapy in 31 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The book, which can be ordered from Oxford University Press, can also be accessed for free.