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We are delighted to announce that Loren Roth, MD, MPH (Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry) has received the American College of Psychiatrists (ACP) Distinguished Service in Psychiatry Award. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes significant achievements and leadership in the field of psychiatry.  

Broadly, Dr. Roth has demonstrated a profound commitment to patient advocacy that is evident through his conceptualization of effective medical student training, as well his national and international work. Dr. Roth is an expert on key law and psychiatry concepts and controversies. He has been an innovator of implementation science, drawing on his empirical research, administrative work, teaching, and approaches to patient care to develop theoretical concepts, manage empirical data collection, test, and document and disseminate process changes designed to ensure patient safety and quality. In collaboration with colleagues at multiple institutions, Dr. Roth conducted one of the first interdisciplinary empirical studies of informed consent in psychiatry. This groundbreaking research incorporated disparate scholarly and judicial commentaries on consent to medical treatment to develop a model of decision-making that consists of the precondition of voluntariness, the provision of information, the patient's competency and understanding, and consent or refusal. 

With this expertise in law and psychiatry, Dr. Roth has influenced health policy locally, nationally, and internationally. He was a member and later chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Commission on Judicial Action, which played a major role in responding to and advocating for the rights of individuals with mental illness. During this period, and for the first time in history, major defining cases involving psychiatry reached appellate courts and the US Supreme Court, affecting individual rights including adjudicating legislative and US Constitutional rights to receive or refuse treatment, to receive evaluation for psychiatric care based on potential dangerousness to themselves or others, and the right to live in the community. Through collaboration with American Psychiatric Association’s legal teams and Judicial Commission colleagues, Dr. Roth helped write advocacy and position statements to the US high courts. His contributions in this area have directly impacted the rights and freedoms of individuals nationwide with regard to psychiatric care. 

One of Dr. Roth’s key professional achievements is his investigation of human rights abuses in the former Soviet Union. The American Psychiatric Association selected Dr. Roth to serve as the psychiatric leader of a delegation of psychiatrists, lawyers, and human rights experts representing the US State Department, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). From 1988-1989, members of the delegation traveled five times to the former Soviet Union to investigate changes in Soviet psychiatry and the status of political dissidents in Soviet psychiatric hospitals, to recommend a protocol for the appropriate evaluation of individuals, as well as a plan to address abuses within the system. Dr. Roth and the delegation determined that the human rights of some Soviet political dissidents had been violated by Soviet governmental entities, resulting in instances of inappropriate psychiatric hospitalization of these individuals. In the years immediately following the fall of the Soviet Union, Dr. Roth secured a grant to return to the area on three occasions to teach modern psychiatric practice to former-Soviet psychiatrists. In addition, he worked in collaboration with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to establish NAMI chapters in Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, with the goal of helping to break down the stigma around mental illness in the former Soviet Union. This work represents a critical entry into international, scientific dialogue regarding the proper implementation of psychiatric care.

As an educator, Dr. Roth has had held a tremendously influential role in training the next generation of physicians. He created the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s curriculum for the immensely popular Patient-Doctor Relationship Block and was the driving force behind the development of three important Pitt Med courses. Dr. Roth and his colleagues also initiated the medical school’s interdisciplinary course on quality and safety, as well as a basic science of care course focused on quality of care and patient safety issues.

“For many years, Loren Roth has been a good friend, colleague, and mentor to me. Many people have received the Distinguished Service in Psychiatry Award, but Loren is the only one who has received it on the basis of his contributions to law and psychiatry, and it can be said that he adds additional prestige to an already prestigious award,” said Charles F. Reynolds, III, MD (Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry).

“His impact and seniority in the field have been reflected in the many briefs he worked on for the US Supreme Court and appellate courts. And his work in the former Soviet Union is testimony to the ethical core of a man who cares deeply about human and social justice,” he continued. “Loren has often spoken to me of the Old Testament prophet Micah, who said we must do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly. Loren’s life as a psychiatrist, scholar, educator, and human has been dedicated to enacting loving kindness, working for justice, and walking humbly.”

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Roth!