Robert Kendell

Abstract

Clinical and academic psychiatrist, he developed sounder scientific methods for diagnosis that were adopted internationally. Professor of Psychiatry, Edinburgh University, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, President-elect of the Society for the Study of Addiction. Born March 28, 1935, in Rotherham, UK; died suddenly from an unsuspected brain tumour aged 67 years on Dec 19, 2002. Robert Kendell had an outstanding and varied career as a psychiatric clinician and researcher, and then in the civil service as a government chief medical adviser. Many of his achievements were due to the fact that he was not afraid to confront controversial ideas and taboos. His work over the past four decades helped place psychiatry on a firmer scientific footing. He was also dedicated to toppling the decades of misunderstanding and ignorance that swayed public perceptions of psychiatry. He was unhappy with the unhelpful “linguistic distinction between mental and physical illnesses, and the mind-body distinction from which this was originally derived, that still encouraged many lay people, and some doctors and health professionals, to assume that the two were fundamentally different”. As a campaigning President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (1996–99) he oversaw the launch of Changing Minds, the college's continuing antistigma crusade designed to focus the attention of the public and professionals on how mental-health problems touch our lives and on potential remedies. That drive to explain schizophrenia, dementia, depressions, anxiety states, alcohol and drug dependence, and eating disorders has had a pivotal role in raising people's comprehension of the ubiquity of these issues. Robert Evan Kendell was born in Rotherham, Yorkshire. His father was a geologist with whom he explored the Welsh hills as a boy, a recreation that blossomed into a passion for mountains and mountaineering. He disarmingly referred to that “pastime”, which included expeditions to the Andes and Himalayas, as “walking up hills”. The family moved to London when he was young. He was educated at Mill Hill school, won a scholarship to Peterhouse College, Cambridge, and obtained a double first in biochemistry in 1956. He had decided to specialise in psychiatry before he began his medical studies at King's College Hospital Medical School, London. He was confirmed as a gifted high-flyer in getting a rarely won distinction in the London University academic diploma in psychological medicine. He was awarded many student medals and prizes before qualifying in 1959. After junior jobs in the UK at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases and the Brompton Hospital, he completed his psychiatric training at the Maudsley Hospital, London. Here, he became interested in the classification of psychiatric disorders and began mulling over ideas for a more satisfactory scientific approach to diagnosis. His talent for research was evident. He was invited to join the Institute of Psychiatry to explore his idea that more than one type of depressive illness might be recognised from a more systematic gathering and documentation of information. The findings were the catalyst that would trigger a shift in diagnosis away from a purely descriptive approach. In 1966, Kendell was invited to work on a major Anglo-American study of psychiatric diagnosis. It was a project that pioneered the use of structured interviewing and history-taking methods for clinical assessments, which were then applied to generate diagnoses according to specific rules. During the study, he spent 2 years as visiting professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine before returning to the Institute of Psychiatry in 1970. In 1974, he was offered the chair in psychiatry at Edinburgh University, where his research, until 1991, helped in a better understanding of pregnancy-related disorders, schizophrenia, hysteria, electroconvul-sive therapy, and the use of lithium medication. His combination of clinical and academic knowledge, a wide experience of epidemiology, and a good track record for organising ability made him a natural choice as Chief Medical Officer for Scotland (1991–96). In addition to coping with the established public-health problems associated with a fondness for alcohol and tobacco and doubtful diets, Kendell was precipitated into the crisis over bovine spongiform encephalopathy and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and for a time found himself mired in this controversy. Kendell was a man of great energy. In 1991, he was elected president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and though the role was virtually full-time, he still made time to preside over scientific bodies, fulfil international obligations as visiting professor, act as examiner at several centres, and serve on committees concerned with education and science. His retirement in 1999 meant he could turn to unfinished business and publish a dozen substantial papers over the next 2 years. His wife Ann, a consultant anaesthetist, and four children survive him.