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• Dimsdale

Joel E. Dimsdale, M.D.

Name, Degree: Joel E. Dimsdale, M.D.
Role(s) in Task Force and Work Group: Chair, Somatic Distress Disorders Work Group
Institutional Affiliation(s): University of California, San Diego
City, State: La Jolla, CA

Biographical Sketch:

Chair, Somatic Distress Disorders Work Group
Member, DSM-V Task Force
Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA

Dr. Dimsdale is professor of psychiatry and co-leader of the Cancer Symptom Control Research Program at University of California, San Diego’s (UCSD’s) Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is an active research investigator, a former career awardee of the American Heart Association, and past-president of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, the American Psychosomatic Society, and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Dimsdale is on numerous editorial boards, editor-in-chief emeritus of Psychosomatic Medicine, and a previous guest editor of Circulation. He chairs the Sleep Research Society’s Committee on Research. He has also been a consultant to the President’s Commission on Mental Health and to the Institute of Medicine, and he is a long-time peer reviewer for the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Dimsdale obtained his B.A. degree in biology from Carleton College. He then attended Stanford University, where he obtained a Master’s degree in Sociology and his medical degree. He obtained his psychiatric training at Massachusetts General Hospital and then completed a fellowship in psychobiology at the New England Regional Primate Center. He was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School from 1976 until 1985, when he moved to UCSD.

Dr. Dimsdale’s major research interests include sympathetic nervous system physiology as it relates to stress, blood pressure, and sleep; cultural factors in illness; and quality of life. He is the author of more than 500 publications as well as the editor of four books.

Uncompensated affiliations with non-profit or advocacy organizations that may have a direct or indirect interest in psychiatric diagnosis, treatment, or the DSM-V :   Three calendar years before  nomination and Each year thereafter through the present calendar year.  (For 2008, activities to date and commitments for remainder of year.)

The two tables below represent Dr. Dimsdale’s disclosure of significant interests and affiliations for:  (1) The time period including the 3 years prior to nomination to serve on the DSM-V Task Force; the calendar year in which nomination to the Task Force occurred; through the calendar year in which the nomination was approved; and (2) the time period including the calendar year after approval, and each successive year to the present.

Dr. Dimsdale has agreed that, from the time of approval through the publication of DSM-V, projected in 2012, his aggregate annual income derived from industry sources (excluding unrestricted research grants) will not exceed $10,000 in any calendar year.

Disclosure of significant interests including:  Three (3) calendar years before nomination, the calendar year of nomination, through the calendar year of approval to serve on the DSM-V Task Force

Disclosure of significant interests Beginning with the calendar year after APA Board of Trustees approval to serve on  the DSM-V Task Force, to the present.  (For 2008, activities to date and commitments for remainder of year.)