Heinz Edgar Lehmann (July 17, 1911 – April 7, 1999) was a German-born

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

psychiatrist best known for his use of

chlorpromazine Chlorpromazine (CPZ), marketed under the brand names Thorazine and Largactil among others, is an antipsychotic medication. It is primarily used to treat psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Other uses include the treatment of bipolar d ...

for the treatment of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

in 1950s and "truly the father of modern

psychopharmacology Psychopharmacology (from Greek ; ; and ) is the scientific study of the effects drugs have on mood, sensation, thinking, behavior, judgment and evaluation, and memory. It is distinguished from neuropsychopharmacology, which emphasizes ...

Early life

Born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, he was educated at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

, the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

, the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, and the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. He emigrated to Canada in 1937. Beginning his new life working at the Montreal Children's Hospital in Montreal where he improved his English until he was appointed junior psychiatrist at then Verdun Protestant Hospital, now called Douglas Mental Health University Institute, on the eve of the Second World War. He lived on the grounds of this hospital where he met his future wife Annette, a nurse, and their son François was born in 1944.

Hospital work in Canada

In 1947, he was appointed the clinical director of Montreal's Douglas Hospital. From 1971 to 1975, he was the chair of the

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Department of Psychiatry. He was also a humane lecturer in psychiatry in 1952, and was able to give empathetic lectures on the plight of people suffering from anxiety, depression obsessions, paranoia etc. No one at that time had been able to understand or help psychotic and depressed patients, who filled mental hospitals around the world, so when the first big breakthrough chlorpromazine(Largactil) arrived from France in 1953 and then imipramine (Tofranil), which came from German-speaking Switzerland in 1958, they both showed promise. He helped to promote them in North America which ignited the drug revolution. He was ahead of his time in that he supported research in the use of the active ingredient

psilocybin Psilocybin, also known as 4-phosphoryloxy-''N'',''N''-dimethyltryptamine (4-PO-DMT), is a natural product, naturally occurring tryptamine alkaloid and Investigational New Drug, investigational drug found in more than List of psilocybin mushroom ...

to alleviate anxiety.

Early Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit (ECDEU)

In 1961 Dr. Lehmann became involved in a new US Public Health Service Program initiative which met to exchange observations and findings on new psychotropics. Although based in Montreal, Canada, it became one of the first units in this network. He invited Thomas A. Ban, his senior psychiatrist and chief of the clinical research service at the hospital, to become his co-principal investigator. This began a close collaboration over an 18-year period that researched most of the psychotropic drugs marketed in North America during the 1960s and 70s. Their findings and observations were shared internationally in articles and at conferences and had a profound impact on the evolution of psychopharmacology as a discipline.

Le Dain Commission

From 1969 to 1972, he was one of the five members of the

Le Dain Commission The Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, often referred to as the Le Dain Commission after its chair Dean Gerald Le Dain, was a Canadian government commission that was begun in 1969 and completed its work in 1972. The recommen ...

, a royal commission appointed in Canada to study the non-medical use of drugs. He was an advocate for decriminalization of marijuana.

DSM work

In 1973, he was a member of the Nomenclature Committee of the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 39,200 members who are in ...

that decided to drop

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

from the

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (''DSM''; latest edition: ''DSM-5-TR'', published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a com ...

, i.e. to depathologize it.

Honors and awards

In acknowledgment of his important contributions, he received the

Lasker Award In 1945 Albert Lasker and Mary Woodard Lasker created the Lasker Awards. Every year since then the award has been given to the living person considered to have made the greatest contribution to medical science or who has demonstrated public ser ...

in 1957 and the Stratton Award of the American Psychopathological Association in 1962. In 1970 he was made a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

and, in 1976, he was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. He was inducted into the

Canadian Medical Hall of Fame __NOTOC__ The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame is a Canadian charitable organization, founded in 1994, that honours Canadians who have contributed to the understanding of disease and improving the health of people. It has an exhibit hall in London, ...

in 1998.

Heinz Lehmann Award

In 1999, the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology established the Heinz Lehmann Award in his honor, given in recognition of outstanding contributions to research in

neuropsychopharmacology Neuropsychopharmacology, an interdisciplinary science related to psychopharmacology (study of effects of drugs on the mind) and fundamental neuroscience, is the study of the neural mechanisms that drugs act upon to influence behavior. It entails ...

in Canada. There are also several other awards including the Heinz Lehmann Award of Excellence of the Quebec Psychiatric Association; and the Heinz E. Lehmann Research Award, which was established by the New York State Office of Mental Health.

References

* * 1911 births 1999 deaths Canadian psychiatrists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada German emigrants to Canada Officers of the Order of Canada Academic staff of McGill University Physicians from Berlin 20th-century Canadian physicians Recipients of the Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award {{psychiatrist-stub