Perminder Sachdev

Perminder Sachdev, AM, MD, PhD, FRANZCP (born 1956) is a Neuropsychiatrist based in Australia. He is the Scientia Professor of Neuropsychiatry at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, the director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), UNSW, and the Clinical Director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI) at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia [1].

Early life
Dr Sachdev was born in Ludhiana, India and went to school in Solan, in the foot-hills of the Himalayas [2]. He received his MBBS from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 1978, his MD in psychiatry from AIIMS in 1981, and his PhD in psychiatry from UNSW in 1991 [3]. He became a Fellow of the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (FRANZCP) in 1985 [3].

Clinical & Research Achievements
Dr Sachdev is the Clinical Director of the NPI at the Prince of Wales Hospital [4]. He has played a leading role in the development of higher training in Neuropsychiatry through his leadership of the International Neuropsychiatric Association (INA), and the Neuropsychiatry Section of the RANZCP [5]. The major contribution of the NPI to psychiatric research has been in the field of Movement disorders, such as drug-induced Akathisia, tardive dystonia, Neuroleptic malignant syndrome, Tourette Syndrome, golfer’s cramp and Psychomotor retardation in Melancholia [6]. In particular, akathisia and its subtypes were characterised, including the development of a rating scale and research diagnostic criteria [7].

Other work has been in the areas of late-onset Schizophrenia [8] and secondary schizophrenia (including head injuries and schizophrenia-like psychosis) [9]. Dr Sachdev published the first negative study of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for depression [10], the first TMS treatment study of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) [11], and the first study that examined the effect of different frequencies of TMS on an animal model of depression [12].

Dr Sachdev’s early research was in the field of Transcultural psychiatry, including descriptions of Maori ethnopsychiatric constructs such as mana-tapu-noa and whakama [13].

Since 1997, Dr Sachdev’s major area of research has been cognitive disorders [14]. He is currently directing a number of longitudinal, community-based studies of brain ageing, including the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study (MAS), the Older Australian Twins Study (OATS), the Sydney Centenarian Study (SCS), and the Sydney Stroke Study (SSS) [15]. He is also a collaborator on one of the largest community based studies of brain imaging: the Australian PATH Through Life Study [16]. Sachdev has contributed to the diagnosis of dementia as a member of the Neurocognitive Disorders Workgroup for the DSM-5 [17]. He has also contributed to the field of epilepsy research as a member of the Task Force of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Neuropsychobiology Commission [18].

Honours and Awards
In 2011, Dr Sachdev was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “services to medical research in the field of neuropsychiatry, as a clinician and academic, and to professional associations at a national and international level” [19]. He has received numerous other awards, including the NSW Scientist of the Year in Biomedical Sciences (2010) [20] and the Organon Senior Research Award, Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) for the best research by an Australian or New Zealand psychiatrist in the previous five years (1995) [21]. He occupied the first chair of Neuropsychiatry in Australia [22].

Dr Sachdev is a Founding Executive Committee Member of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia [23]. He was elected President (2004-2006) of the International Neuropsychiatric Association [24]. Dr Sachdev was international advisor to the Psychosurgery Review Committee of the American Neurosurgical Society and a member of the F1000 Reports advisory board. He has served on the editorial board of a number of international peer-reviewed journals, including the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Treatment, Acta Neuropsychiatrica and Current Opinion in Psychiatry [25].