Ralph Wharton

Ralph Wharton is Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. His work is focused on the clinical use of psychotropic medicines alone and in conjunction with psychotherapy or psychoanalysis. His clinical research on the use of lithium carbonate in the affective psychoses was noted in the Special Sesquicentennial Issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry and was republished there as one of the best in its 150 years as a publication. He has published numerous other papers on diverse topics in psychiatry, including the use of methylphenidate, electrical stimulation of the brain, and phantom limb pain.

Professor Wharton was honored as the President of the Society of Practitioners at the Columbia Medical Center and was Practitioner of the Year in 2010. He also served as President of the American College of Psychoanalysts. A named scholarship was set up in his honor at the College of Physicians & Surgeons. He is the founder and has co-directed the Reiner Center for Behavioral Medicine at Presbyterian Hospital for 30 years.

Professor Wharton is a founding member of the International Society for the study of Pain and has presented many papers on the subject, including a paper coauthored with Crawford Clark, that introduced a new pain scale. They published many studies together including one in Science on pain tolerance among the sherpas who serve as guides in Mt. Everest. Dr. Wharton is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the New York Academy of Medicine.

He served on Mayor Dinkins committee on addiction and reported on problems at Rikers Island jail in New York City and as a medical consultant for 3 years on an archeological exploration in the Crimea (Ukraine).