James Levenson, M.D.

Biography

Dr. James Levenson is the Rhona Arenstein Professor of Psychiatry and a professor of Medicine and Surgery at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, where he is also Chair of the Division of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry. He attended medical school at the University of Michigan, followed by an internal medicine internship at the University of Oregon, a psychiatric residency at the University of Colorado, and a consultation-liaison psychiatry fellowship at Westchester County Medical Center. He is board-certified in Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine.

He is past-President of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, and has served on the USMLE 3 and Post-Licensure Assessment committees of the National Board of Medical Examiners. He is Chair of the Committee for Subspecialization in Psychosomatic Medicine within the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology; a member of the DSM-5 Work Group on Somatic Symptom Disorders; an Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Psychosomatic Research; and on the editorial boards of the journals Psychological Medicine and General Hospital Psychiatry. Within his university’s health system, he has been the Ethics Committee Chair for a number of decades, as well as serving on its boards of the Clinical Practice Plan, the Malpractice Plan, and the Medicaid HMO. He is also a member of the Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome Information Service Advisory Council.

Dr. Levenson has received the highest teaching awards bestowed by his medical school and his university, and received the latter’s health system’s highest award as a clinician. He received the Thomas and Eleanor Hackett Award from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Liaison Psychiatry.

He has published over 235 papers and book chapters and 7 books, including The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychosomatic Medicine, Clinical Manual of Psychopharmacology in the Medically Ill, and Psychiatry Essentials for Primary Care. His scholarly interests include psychiatric disorders and their treatment in the medically ill, the effects of psychological factors on health care utilization, and medical ethics.