Dr. Frederic Quitkin, a psychiatrist whose research helped establish that certain kinds of depression could best be treated with medications and that schizophrenia is related to neurological impairments rather than problems of childhood, has died in New York City. He was 68.
He died Oct. 9 of pancreatic cancer, said his son, Dr. Matt Quitkin of Washington.
Dr. Quitkin was the founding director of the Depression Evaluation Service at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
“He developed the concept of an atypical depression that is quite chronic, where people tend to overeat and oversleep and respond very specifically to a group of medications that aren’t used that much,” said Dr. Donald Klein, director of research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a colleague at Columbia.
Many people with depression respond to selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, such as Prozac and Zoloft, or a class of drugs known as tricyclics. Dr. Quitkin’s research helped establish that atypical depression could be more effectively treated with a class of drugs known as MAO inhibitors, Klein said.
In addition to his work on atypical depression and schizophrenia, Dr. Quitkin researched other psychiatric disorders, including those associated with drug and alcohol dependence, and on treatment with a placebo.
