Dr. Stewart Agras on the History of Psychiatry

Stewart Agras, M.D. (Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University) was one of the early leaders in the field of behavior therapy. At the University of Vermont, in collaboration with Harold Leitenberg Ph.D., he became interested in phobia as a model for psychotherapy research, leading to the discovery that exposure to the feared situation was a principal ingredient of treatment for the phobias. In 1973 he moved to Stanford University as Professor of Psychiatry, establishing one of the first behavioral medicine programs in the country, and becoming the founding President of the Society for Behavioral Medicine. When the upsurge in patients with bulimia nervosa occurred in the late seventies he began research into the etiology and treatment of the disorder, conducting a number of important treatment trials for bulimia nervosa, together with the first treatment studies for binge eating disorder. He has established a comprehensive Eating Disorders treatment program at Stanford. He has been President of the Society for Behavioral Medicine, President of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and has twice been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences.