Herbert Kleber was a famous American psychiatrist and substance abuse researcher. Google recently honored him with a doodle!
So let’s dive into some unknowns and facts about his life and career!
- His full name is Herbert David Kleber
- He was born in June 19, 1934
- He died on October 5, 2018
- He was an American psychiatrist and substance abuse researcher
- In 1968, he founded the Drug Dependence Unit at Yale University
- There he was a professor of psychiatry
- He headed the Unit until 1989
- He then served for two and a half years as the Deputy Director for Demand Reduction at the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the White House
- He relied on research-backed methods such as medication and therapeutic communities for treating addiction
- Unlike many doctors of his time, Dr Kleber viewed addiction not as a moral failure, but as a condition that could only be treated through research, medication and therapy
- In 1992, Kleber, with his wife Marian Fischman, co-founded the Substance Abuse Division
- One of the leading centers in the country for treatment of such abuse
- It was founded within the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University
- He was director of the Division
- And headed a number of projects on new methods to treat individuals with cocaine, heroin, prescription opioid, alcohol, or marijuana problems
- He also co-founded the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia with Joseph Califano
- A 2014 article in Vice said that Kleber served as a paid consultant to the opioid pharmaceutical industry
- Dr. Kleber was author or co-author of more than 250 papers
- And the co-editor of the American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Substance Abuse Treatment, now in its fourth edition
- He received numerous prestigious awards and two honorary degrees
- He was listed as one of the “Best Doctors in America” and “Best Doctors in New York”
- He was elected in 1996 as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences
- He was on the boards of a number of organizations
- Including the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the Treatment Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Betty Ford Institute
- On October 1, 2019, Google honoured Dr. Herbert Kleber by celebrating what would have been the 23rd anniversary of his election to the National Academy of Medicine, with a Google Doodle
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