First, Michael

AMERICAN
PSYCHIATRIST

Michael First is known as one of the world's foremost experts in the areas of psychiatric assessment and diagnosis. He is an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and an associate attending psychiatrist at Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. His undergraduate degree, earned summa cum laude from Princeton University, was in computer science; his expertise in information technology has resulted in First's creation of a variety of quite popular computer-administered programs utilized for psychiatric interviewing.

First is well known as the text and criteria editor of the psychiatric diagnostic guide for the DSM-IV (Fourth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders); he was the editor for the DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision), as well as the DSM-IV-TR version developed especially for primary care physicians. The DSM is the universally accepted (as a valid and reliable research and diagnostic tool) diagnostic manual for psychiatry, psychology, and the behavioral health (mental health and substance abuse) professions.

First is the primary author of the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV (SCID). This is a longitudinally studied, highly reliable and valid diagnostic instrument employed by psychiatric, psychological, and behavioral health researchers, by the pharmaceutical industry, by clinicians and educators in many different settings, and by forensic clinicians and researchers as part of their psychodiagnostic and culpability assessments, as well as by those forensic psychologists and psychiatrists who make competency (to stand trial) assessments. The SCID is the most widely used diagnostic assessment tool in psychiatry.

First's forensic science expertise includes diagnostic assessment, differential diagnosis, and psychiatric interviewing. He is particularly noted for observing the subtle diagnostic underpinnings of the various personality disorders. First has published well in excess of thirty peer-reviewed articles on substance dependence, mood disorders, personality disorders, assessment, and psychiatric diagnosis. As a result of First's worldwide reputation as an expert in the fields of psychiatric and psychodiagnostic interviewing and assessment, he has been asked to act as a consultant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the classification of violent crime. He serves also as a distinguished member of the professional organization the Forensic Panel, and he provides expert commentary to the journal Forensic Echo.