Dennis Charney

Dennis S. Charney, MD, is a psychiatrist and clinical researcher whose work has focused on rapid-acting antidepressant treatments and the neurobiology of stress-related psychiatric disorders. He has led and contributed to multiple clinical trials investigating the antidepressant effects of intravenous ketamine in treatment-resistant major depression and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, including two-site randomised controlled trials and repeated-dose administration studies. Charney's clinical research programme has concurrently examined neurocognitive effects of ketamine and sought neuroimaging correlates and predictors of treatment response, bridging clinical outcomes with mechanistic biomarkers.

His contributions emphasise rigorous clinical trial design for novel interventions, careful characterisation of cognitive and symptomatic effects, and integration of neuroimaging to identify potential predictors of response. Through these studies he has helped to define the therapeutic potential and limitations of repeated ketamine administration in severe mood and stress-related disorders and advanced translational approaches aimed at improving patient selection and mechanistic understanding of rapid antidepressant therapies.