Gerald Russell

{{Short description|British psychiatrist (1928–2018)}} {{About||the U.S. Marine Corps officer|Gerald F. Russell|the Royal Navy officer|Gerald Walter Russell}} {{Use British English|date=April 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Gerald Russell | title = Professor of Psychiatry, Dean of the Institute of Psychiatry | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1928|01|12|df=y}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|7|26|1928|1|12|df=y}}<ref name=lancet/> | death_place = London, UK | alma_mater = University of Edinburgh | known_for = Describing Bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder | occupation = Psychiatrist | spouse = | website = | children = 3 sons }}

'''Gerald Francis Morris Russell''' (12 January 1928 – 26 July 2018)<ref name=lancet/><ref>[https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/professor-gerald-russell-obituary-7f25b75bb Professor Gerald Russell obituary, Iron-willed psychiatrist who was the leading authority on eating disorders and will be remembered for his fascination with Rubens’nudes] The Times. 22 August 2018.{{subscription required}}</ref> was a British psychiatrist.<ref name=Debretts2005>{{cite book|title=Debrett's People of Today 2005|year=2005|edition=18th|isbn=1-870520-10-6|publisher=Debrett's|page=1433}}</ref> In 1979 he published one of the first descriptions of bulimia nervosa,<ref>{{cite journal|title = Bulimia nervosa: an ominous variant of anorexia nervosa |last =Russell |first =Gerald |date=August 1979 |journal = Psychological Medicine | volume = 9 |pages= 429–48 |pmid=482466 |issue=3 |doi=10.1017/S0033291700031974|s2cid =23973384 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/185/6/447|title=Bulimia nervosa: 25 years on|publisher=British Journal of Psychiatry|year=2004|volume=185|pages=447–448|first=Robert|last=Palmer|pmid=15572732|doi=10.1192/bjp.185.6.447|journal=The British Journal of Psychiatry|issue=6|doi-access=free|hdl=2381/16426|hdl-access=free}}</ref> and Russell's sign has been named after him.

==Early life and education == Gerald Francis Morris Russell's father was a diplomate who worked at the British Embassy in Belgium. Russell went to school in Brussels. At the onset of World War II the family moved to the UK.<ref name=lancet>{{cite journal|first = Geoff |last = Watts |url = https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32605-9 |title = Gerald Francis Morris Russell |journal= The Lancet |page = 1620 |volume=392, Number 10158 |date = 3 November 2018|issue = 10158 |doi = 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32605-9 }}</ref> He then attended George Watson's College, Edinburgh, and qualified as a medical doctor with MBChB from the University of Edinburgh in 1950.<ref name=Debretts2005/><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/register/LRMP.asp|title=List of Registered Medical Practitioners (The online Register)|publisher=General Medical Council |accessdate=18 July 2011}}</ref> In 1957 Russell gained a PhD in neurology from the University of Edinburgh.<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Russell|first=G. F. M.|date=1957|title=Pupil and accommodation: observations on their nervous control in health and disease|language=en|publisher=Edinburgh Medical School thesis and dissertation collection|hdl=1842/22612}}</ref> Russell was advised to complete training by temporarily working in psychiatry. While at London's Maudsley Hospital he met the psychiatrist Aubrey Lewis and "was completely won over by the way that Lewis thought about and practised psychiatry" and became a psychiatrist too.<ref name=lancet/>

==Career== From 1971 to 1979 Russell was a professor and consultant psychiatrist at the Royal Free Hospital, London. During this time he noticed patients who were overeating, followed by self-induced vomiting or using purgatives or both and a morbid fear of becoming fat, which did not fit the classic description of anorexia nervosa. He called it bulimia nervosa.<ref name=lancet/>

From 1979 to 1993 he was a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, London,<ref name=Debretts2005/> where he set up an eating disorder unit,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/02/32/64/Comment175.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090319001506/https://www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/02/32/64/Comment175.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-03-19 |date=July 2007 |page=9 |publisher=King's College London |work=Comment: The College Newsletter |title=The Eating Disorder Unit }}</ref> which has been named after him.<ref name=Debretts2005/>

He used family therapy as a treatment for eating disorders and -in one of the earliest and most influential critical assessments of its efficacy- evaluated it in a controlled trial.<ref name=lancet/> From 1993 onward he worked at Priory Hosp Hayes Grove, Bromley, Kent.<ref name=Debretts2005/>

==Personal life== Russell married Margaret née Taylor on 8 September 1950, and they had three sons, born 1951, 1956 and 1957. His hobbies included art galleries, photography, and music.<ref name=Debretts2005/> He died of cancer in London, on 26 July 2018, aged 90 years.<ref name=lancet/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/search/results/8897/Gerald%20Francis%20Morris+RUSSELL.aspx Debrett's online]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Gerald}} Category:1928 births Category:2018 deaths Category:People educated at George Watson's College Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:English psychiatrists Category:20th-century English medical doctors