The Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry at West Virginia University is located in Chestnut Ridge Hospital on the campus of the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center in Morgantown, West Virginia. Chestnut Ridge Hospital is the psychiatric center for West Virginia University Hospitals. This center has 70 beds, including four inpatient programs and two residential treatment programs for male adolescents. There is a comprehensive outpatient department, as well as a partial hospitalization program for adults. The hospital is a regional referral center drawing patients from western Maryland, Pennsylvania, and northern West Virginia. The department interfaces with all clinical and basic science departments within the West Virginia University School of Medicine, providing faculty and trainees access to a wide range of clinical, academic, and research experiences.

The faculty comprises 60 psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers in the roles of clinician, teacher and researcher. Graduate training is provided to 37 residents, interns and doctoral candidates in psychology, as well as masters level social workers and psychology residents in neuropsychology and fellows in forensics. We are supported by 40 administrative and research staff and 10 clinical staff colleagues.

Current research in the department includes investigation of trauma and anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression. Behavioral physiology responses to chronic illness, cognitive and memory dysfunction, services research on outcomes in serious mental illnesses, addiction, and cardiac disease prevention projects are in progress. We sponsor an active neuropharmacology program, support the Advanced Imaging Center and maintain the Behavior Health Research Center. In addition we investigate clinical drug trials.

Beyond the Morgantown campus, the department faculty provide clinical, teaching and research services at the 150-bed William R. Sharpe state mental hospital in Weston, as well as outreach to community mental health centers in surrounding counties and the VA Hospital in Clarksburg.