Researcher | Research Overview
William R. Beardslee’s research focuses on the prevention of mental illness, especially depression, and on the identification of strengths and resilience in the face of adversity. He developed and evaluated the Family Talk intervention for parental depression that has received very high rankings in the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices and has been used widely in this country and abroad. He led the Boston site of the Prevention of Depression study that used a cognitive behavioral prevention for adolescents at high risk for depression. This study has demonstrated the actual prevention of episodes of major prevention as long as 33 months after enrollment. He currently co-chairs the Institute of Medicine Forum on Promoting Children’s Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Health.
Researcher | Research Background
William R. Beardslee, MD, received his MD degree from Case Western Reserve University. He completed an internship in Pediatrics at Moffitt Hospital, University of California, San Francisco and a residency in Adult Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and in Child Psychiatry and Research fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital.
Dr. Beardslee is the author of over 200 articles and chapter and two books: The Way Out Must Lead In: Life Histories in the Civil Rights Movement, which explores the mechanisms that allowed civil rights workers to endure; and Out of the Darkened Room: When a Parent Is Depressed: Protecting the Children and Strengthening the Family, a book about how parents and caregivers can help families overcome depression.