Dan J. Stein


Dan Joseph Stein is Professor and Chair of the Dept of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town, and Director of the South African MRC Unit on Risk & Resilience in Mental Disorders. Stein was the Director of UCT's early Brain and Behaviour Initiative, and is currently Scientific Director of UCT's later Neuroscience Institute.|He has also been a Visiting Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the United States, and at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Education

Stein did his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Cape Town, and his doctorate at the University of Stellenbosch. He trained in psychiatry, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University. His training also includes a doctorate in philosophy.

Interests

Stein is interested in the psychobiology and management of the anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and related, and traumatic and stress disorders. He has also mentored work in other areas that are of particular relevance to South Africa and Africa, including neuroHIV/AIDS and substance use disorders. Stein's work ranges from basic neuroscience, through clinical investigations and trials, and on to epidemiological and public mental health research.
Stein is enthusiastic about the possibility of clinical practice and scientific research that integrates theoretical concepts and empirical data across these different levels. Having worked for many years in South Africa, he is also enthusiastic about establishing integrative approaches to services, training, and research in the context of a low and-middle-income country.

Contributions

Stein chaired the DSM-5 and the ICD-11 workgroups on obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. Both classification systems elected to include a new chapter on these conditions. This decision aimed to improve detection and diagnosis of these commonly overlooked conditions.
Stein has influenced the field by collaboration, by mentorship, and by publication.
Stein has authored or edited over 40 volumes, including “Cognitive-Affective Neuroscience of Mood and Anxiety Disorders”, and “The Philosophy of Psychopharmacology: Smart Pills, Happy Pills, Pep Pills”. Other volumes include the "Textbook of Anxiety Disorders", and "Textbook of Mood Disorders". For a detailed list, see his author page at Amazon
For a detailed list of publications, see Google Scholar, or ORCID.

Awards

Stein’s work has been continuously funded by extramural grants for more than two decades. He is a recipient of several national and international awards, including the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology's Max Hamilton Memorial Award for his contribution to psychopharmacology, and of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry's Lifetime Achievement Award.