Neelakanta Pillai Vasavan Nair, MD, FRCPC, FRCP (U.K.), FRC Psych (U.K.), DPM, has contributed to the Douglas Institute in a variety of capacities. Upon joining the Douglas Institute in 1972, N.P. Vasavan Nair was immediately appointed the coordinator of research services by Heinz Lehmann, MD, the then director of Research Services.

Since that time, in a clinical and administrative capacity, he has been appointed:

• Director of research services (1979)
• Director of the Douglas Institute Research Centre (1980)
• First director of the Department of Psychiatry (1995), during which time he established sector teams for the Douglas Institute catchment area based on the Rochon Commission model of healthcare delivery)
• Medical director for the Program for Dementia with Psychiatric Comorbidity (2002).

N.P. Vasavan Nair’s research interests are clinical psychopharmacology and neurobiology of schizophrenia, depression, and Alzheimer Disease; his current research focuses on finding treatment methods for conditions that are difficult to treat, such as psychosis with Alzheimer Disease, and refractory depression.

Research accomplishments include:

• Conducting a key study on long-acting injectable haloperidol, which demonstrated equal efficiency with lower blood levels in comparison to oral preparations
• Along with Dr. S. Lal, demonstrating, for the first time, the lack of prolactin release as a special property of clozapine
• Identifying low melatonin as a marker for depression and its reversal under treatment
• Establishing the Douglas Institute’s longitudinal study on brain aging, starting as a World Health Organization (WHO) multinational program in 1986.

The population and data have been used by a number of Douglas Institute researchers. The project continues to this day. N.P. Vasavan Nair’s teaching accomplishments include: acting as a regular contributor to the McGill teaching program for residents in psychiatry, offering didactic seminars and clinical supervision; and training WHO fellows from developing countries in research methodology in psychiatry.

In recognition of his outstanding accomplishments, he has been awarded the following: 2002 Best Supervisor Award - McGill Department of Psychiatry 1993 Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), (USA) 1992 Award of Excellence for Scientific Research from the American Association of Psychiatrists from India 1991 CCNP Medal of Honour for Meritorious Service in Psychopharmacology.