Psychiatry has been held back by our limited translational pipeline. Nobel laureate Julius Axelrod's discovery in 1961 of monoamine reuptake by pre-synaptic neurons still forms the basis of most commonly prescribed types of antidepressants treatment. Likewise, dopamine receptor antagonists are widely used to treat schizophrenia. Pierre Deniker and Jean Delay conducted a clinical trial at the Sainte-Anne Hospital Center in Paris in which they treated 38 psychotic patients with daily injections of chlorpromazine, a dopamine receptor antagonist, without the use of other sedating agents. The response was dramatic; treatment with chlorpromazine went beyond simple sedation with patients showing improvements in thinking and emotional behavior. That was first reported in 1952.

There is a grievous gap between the explosion of knowledge in neuroscience and conceptually novel treatments for our patients that will result in better outcomes than what is provided by existing approaches. Translational Psychiatry bridges this gap by focusing on papers that directly study psychiatric disorders and bring new discovery into clinical practice. In addition to this core mission of the journal, we may consider papers from all areas of medical research, including — but not restricted to — molecular biology, genetics, pharmacology, imaging, and epidemiology, that have potential to contribute to enhance the field of translational psychiatry more broadly. To maintain balance, such papers that do not directly address our core mission will be considered on a case-by-case basis, as a matter of editorial discretion, which can also be supported by advice gained during the peer review process.

Editor-in-Chief
Julio Licinio, MD, PhD, MBA, MS
Julio Licinio, MD, PhD, MBA, MS, FRANZCP, FAAHMS, is State University of New York (SUNY) Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Pharmacology, Medicine, and Neuroscience & Physiology at SUNY Upstate Medical University (UMU). He was Senior Vice President for Academic and Health Affairs, and Executive Dean, College of Medicine at SUNY UMU in 2017-2019. He is also Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. Prior to joining Upstate in 2017, he was Deputy Director for Translational Research and Head, Mind-Brain Theme at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, and previously he was Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University. Dr. Licinio was Chair of Psychiatry at University of Miami (2006-2009) and prior to that, he was at UCLA (1999-2006), where he was Center Director and Vice-Chair of Psychiatry. Dr. Licinio had clinical and research training in endocrinology and psychiatry at University of Chicago and Cornell. He is recognized internationally as a leader in translational research in depression and obesity. He has had academic apointments for over 25 years at Yale, NIH, UCLA, University of Miami, SUNY, and in Australia, where he has had key leadership positions. He is also founding Editor of three Springer Nature journals, Molecular Psychiatry, Translational Psychiatry, and The Pharmacogenomics Journal. He has most recently served as a member of the New York State Governor’s Suicide Prevention Task Force, representing SUNY.