Abstract
Paul’s interest in ADHD dates back to his work at the National Institute of Mental Health starting in the 1960s in clinics outside Washington, DC. Remarkably, at the same time, he was also conducting landmark research in the genetics of schizophrenia (Rosenthal, Wender, Kety, Welner, & Schulsinger, 1971) that was challenging the currently held theories as to the etiology of that disorder.
A graduate of Harvard and Columbia University School of Medicine, Paul entered psychiatry at a time when psychoanalytic theory dominated the field. “I began training in psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in 1960. “It was totally psychoanalytic,” he said in a 2002 interview for the archives of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, “I found myself in the position of the little boy in the fairy tale of the emperor’s new clothes. None of these people had scientific clothes on.”
In the early 1970s, Paul was invited to the University of Utah Medical School Department of Psychiatry to continue his research. He was drawn to Utah’s dedication to a more scientific approach to the field of psychiatry as well its remarkable mountains and deserts. He later honored his new home by including its name in several very important creations: the “Utah Criteria” for the diagnosis of ADHD in adults and the Wender Utah Rating Scale.
He published the first medical review of ADHD, Minimal Brain Dysfunction in Children, in 1971. Starting soon afterward, we conducted the first medication trial dealing with the treatment of ADHD in adults, which was published in 1976 (Wood, Reimherr, Wender, & Johnson, 1976). Again, this effort that ran counter to the popular view at the time that ADHD was an illness confined to childhood.
This work continued with several confirmatory studies, investigations exploring alternative ADHD treatments, development of several scales to assess ADHD, and, finally, neurochemical studies.
During this time, Paul treated many patients and supervised numerous trainees at Utah. There were additional publications of his innovative work in the area of schizophrenia. In 1995, Paul published the first scientific monograph addressing adult ADHD, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults.
Also in the 1990s, Paul collaborated with Donald Klein at Columbia University to form the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP). Initially, Paul worked with a U.S. Senator from Utah, Orrin Hatch, and First Lady Barbara Bush, wife of then President of the United States George H. W. Bush, to help start this organization. The first ASCP meeting was held at the May 1992 American Psychiatric Association meeting. Fifty well-known psychopharmacologists participated in a historic discussion concerning just what such a group should be. This has proven a remarkably successful effort, and the Society continues to honor Paul each year when it presents the Paul Wender Award for the outstanding paper in its journal from the past year.
Paul’s visibility in scientific work continued into the last years of his life, and in 2015, the World Federation of ADHD at its biannual meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, presented him with the 2015 Hoffmann Medal, a lifetime achievement award. He remained very involved with data analysis and publications. In fact, 24 hr before his death, he sent me an e-mail providing ideas for a publication that we were preparing in association with colleagues in North America and Europe.
Although not always one to suffer fools gladly, he was a scientist who could see the boundaries of a problem and envision the next steps in its solution as well as perceiving and anticipating changes in the field. His many students, colleagues, and friends from all parts of the world will miss his keen mind and ready wit.
At the age of 82, Paul died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm on July 16, 2016. In addition to his wife, Dr. Frances Burger, Paul leaves three daughters, Jocelyn Wender-Shubow of Jamaica Plain, Leslie Evangelista of Plainville, and Melissa of Dorchester, all in Massachusetts; a stepson, James Murdock, of Providence, Rhode Island; a brother, Ira, of New York City; and two grandchildren.