Salutatory address by Prof. N.G. Neznanov, Director of the Institute

Dear colleagues, friends! The St.Petersburg Psychoneurological Research Institute bearing today the name of V.M. Bekhterev was founded in 1907 by the Emperor Nicholas II ukase in consequence of the Russian Prime Minister P.A. Stolypin's motion. Its founder was V.M. Bekhterev, world-famous great scholar and the most prominent organizer of the psychoneurological orientation in medicine. From the very beginning of the Institute's existence it predetermined its noticeable place in the Russian and world psychoneurology and breadth of scientific aspirations peculiar to it. The spirit of creativity characteristic of the Institute is retained also in our days.

It was the first Russian scientific research institute of psychoneurological profile where the first in our country neurosurgical clinic as well as an institute of alcoholism study and the first laboratory of medical psychology were also organized. Besides V.M. Bekhterev himself such prominent scientists of our country as V.N. Myasischev, P.A. Ostankov, R.Ya. Golant, Ye.S. Averbukh, T.Ya. Khvilivitskiy, R.Ya. Vovin, L.Ya. Pines, S.N. Davidenkov, I.Ya. Razdol'skiy, L.M. Pussep, A.F. Lazurskiy, S.S. Mnukhin, and many others also connectd their scientific careers with the work in the Institute.

The original V.M. Bekhterev's conception concerning the necessity of holistic study of man was realized in a fact that the Institute has become essentially the unique Russian psychoneurological university where all the multidisciplinary aspects of psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery and medical psychology develop fruitfully realizing practically putting into practice the synthesis of biological, psychological and social nature of man.

V.M. Bekhterev Institute - an abstract

Today, the V.M. Bekhterev Institute represents a large scientific research and clinical institution where professionals of high qualification (Doctors and Candidates of Sciences) are working in following areas:

• NEUROLOGY: Treatment of cerebrovascular disorders, adult and infantile epilepsy, organic lesions of the brain, etc.
• PSYCHIATRY: Treatment of depression, schizophrenia and other mental diseases with contemporary medicinal agents, pharmaco-psychotherapy of psychoses
• CHILD PSYCHIATRY: Diagnosis and care for children and adolescents with psychoses, retardations of the rate of mental development, attention deficit and hyperactivity syndrome, conduct disorders, obsessive-compulsive states and other pedagogic and psychological problems.
• PSYCHOTHERAPY: Treatment of neurotic disturbances; personality disorders including psychosomatic ones, various forms of game and computer dependence. Institute's staff members include professionally educated certified psychotherapists, those trained in different countries of Europe among them.
• NEUROSURGERY: Operative interventions on the brain and spinal cord including stereotaxic and open operations in epilepsy, drug resistant mental diseases, hyperkineses, sequelae of cerebral injuries, a. o.
• NARCOLOGY: The Narcology Department offers aid to patients suffering from alcohol, drug, and toxic substance dependence, to their relatives and also to patients with psychiatric problems suffering from different kinds of dependence
• GERONTOPSYCHIATRY: Treatment of mental disorders of the elderly age with a special attention to diagnostication and treatment of motor and speech disorders, postinsult depression, mnestic, thought, and cognitive disorders.
• PSYCHODIAGNOSIS: Psychological diagnosis of cognitive functions, emotional and volitional sphere, personality traits in adults and children, family relationships; diagnosis in the field of vocational selection and vocational counseling.

Our mission

Mission: "Improvement of the mental health of our compatriots by facilitating the harmonization of man with his external and inner world, using modern achievements of science in the field of mental and neurological health"

Events

• The Regional Congress of the World Psychiatric Association on the subject of “Traditions and Innovations in Psychiatry” will be held in Saint Petersburg, June 10 to 12, 2010