ANN ARBOR, MI - Melvin G. McInnis, M.D., director of psychiatry programs at the University of Michigan Depression Center, was installed June 26 as the first Thomas B. and Nancy Upjohn Woodworth Professor in Bipolar Disorder and Depression. The professorship was provided through an endowment created by Tom and Nancy Upjohn Woodworth of Kalamazoo.

Melvin G. McInnis, M.D.

The Woodworths' $2 million gift will help McInnis develop and implement various research, education and clinical programs at the U-M Depression Center, including the establishment of a bipolar disorder clinic within the new Rachel Upjohn Building. The bipolar disorder clinic will provide ongoing treatments for patients with bipolar disorder and consultations at a local and national level.

“The clinic will be unique in that it will combine a youth and young adult mood disorders program,” says McInnis, also a professor of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School. “Many, if not most, mood disorders begin in adolescence and young adulthood; this clinic will ensure continuity of care at a tender time in these patients' lives.”

The gift also will allow McInnis to work collaboratively with other clinics in the U-M Health System, which he says is important because of the many other health issues commonly associated with mood disorders.

“Like asthma and diabetes, mood disorders often require expert care. Because most primary care doctors shy away from managing bipolar disorders, we need to provide support and education so that they are more comfortable providing care for these patients,” McInnis says.

McInnis, whose ancestral home is in Northern Iceland , received his medical training at the University of Iceland, where he developed his interest in the genetics of bipolar disorder. He completed a psychiatric residency at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals at the University of London and then spent 15 years at Johns Hopkins University, where he became an associate professor and director of the George Brown Genetics Laboratory.

McInnis has published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles on the genetics and clinical course of bipolar disorders. He is known as an expert in the diagnosis, genetics and clinical management of bipolar and depressive disorders in adolescents and adults.

“This prestigious professorship was very important in my decision to come to the University of Michigan,” says McInnis, who moved from Johns Hopkins to Michigan last October. The Depression Center's position to “lead the integration of clinical and basic science into the care of patients with all forms of mood disorders” was also key in his decision to join the UMHS faculty.

About the Rachel Upjohn Building :

• 112,500 gross square feet
• Stained glass, life-size logo
• 8500 square feet of panel glass curtain windows
• Atrium: 100 ft x 30 ft, two-story, sky-light
• Research Space: 54,000 square feet
• 7 conference rooms, 7 collaboration pods
• 335 offices and treatment rooms
• 7 patient waiting areas
• 1054 trees native to building site
• 180 new trees
• 400 new parking spaces

Written by Jessica Schrader

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