Herbert Kleber trivia: 25 amazing facts about the famous psychiatrist

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!

1. His full name is Herbert David Kleber
2. He was born in June 19, 1934
3. He died on October 5, 2018
4. He was an American psychiatrist and substance abuse researcher
5. In 1968, he founded the Drug Dependence Unit at Yale University
6. There he was a professor of psychiatry
7. He headed the Unit until 1989
8. 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
9. He relied on research-backed methods such as medication and therapeutic communities for treating addiction
10. 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
11. In 1992, Kleber, with his wife Marian Fischman, co-founded the Substance Abuse Division
12. One of the leading centers in the country for treatment of such abuse
13. It was founded within the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University
14. He was director of the Division
15. And headed a number of projects on new methods to treat individuals with cocaine, heroin, prescription opioid, alcohol, or marijuana problems
16. He also co-founded the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia with Joseph Califano
17. A 2014 article in Vice said that Kleber served as a paid consultant to the opioid pharmaceutical industry
18. Dr. Kleber was author or co-author of more than 250 papers
19. And the co-editor of the American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Substance Abuse Treatment, now in its fourth edition
20. He received numerous prestigious awards and two honorary degrees
21. He was listed as one of the “Best Doctors in America” and “Best Doctors in New York”
22. He was elected in 1996 as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences
23. He was on the boards of a number of organizations
24. Including the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the Treatment Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Betty Ford Institute
25. 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