Department of Psychiatry and Narcology

History of the department

Establishment in 1840 of the Medical Faculty at  Kyiv St. Volodymyr University marked a new level of clinical psychiatry development in Kyiv. The first lectures on psychiatry in the course of therapy were delivered by V.Pokrovskyi and  by Professor F.Ergardworked as a consultant to Cyril’s “God-pleasing” institutions, and had publications in forensic psychiatry.

In 1885 the Department of Psychiatric and Nervous Diseases was established on the basis of the Chair of Systematic Clinical Doctrine of Mental Illness. Its first professor and head was I. Sikorskyi (1845-1919), who made a significant contribution to the study of mental disorders in children, published the book “Education in the Age of First Childhood” (1882) and the fundamental monograph “Universal Psychopathology with Physiognomy” (1904), published a textbook “Fundamentals of Theoretical and Clinical medicine ”(1910), as well as numerous articles on alcoholism, psychogenic, etc. Since 1895, I.A. Sikorskyi was an advisor  of the magazine “Issues of Neuropsychic Medicine”, was the organizer and chairman of the Psychiatric Union at the same university, studied the problems of “psychopathic epidemics”, issues of psychotherapy and psycho hygiene. In 1903 he headed the independent psychiatry department after separating the department of neurology. Professor V.V. occupied the position of head of the department for some time. Seletskyi (a student of I Sikorskyi,) author of more than 60 works, became the head of the department.

In 1920-1924 Department of Psychiatry, Kyiv Medical University, separated from the University of St. Vladimir in 1921, was headed by Professor Pinechay, who worked for a long time as the head of the Cyril Psychiatric Hospital.

Since 1925, the Department of Psychiatry has been headed by Professor V. Gakkebush (1887-1931), who also directed the Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Faculty of Law, Kyiv Institute of National Economy.

Later (1931-1932) the course of lectures on psychiatry at the Kyiv Medical Institute was delivered by Professor E. Kopistynskyi (1879-1967), who from 1936 to 1941 also headed the department of psychiatry, created at the time of the 2nd Kyiv Medical Institute.

In 1932 till 1975 the Department of Psychiatry was headed by Professor Y. Frumkin (1902-1978), author of more than 150 scientific works, including 5 monographs, textbooks and manuals (“Psychiatric terminology”, 1939; “Short differential diagnosis of some mental illnesses”, 1950; “Educational atlas of psychiatry”, 1962, et al.).

Professor G. Voronkov (1923-1992) became the next head of the department of psychiatry (1975-1991) of  Bogomolets Kyiv Medical Institute . He studied in depth the issues of early diagnosis of epilepsy, the features of its initial forms, and developed an original method of electroencephalography for the study of absenteeism.  His works include problems of pathomorphosis of mental illness, alcoholism, symptomatic psychoses, rehabilitation, organization of psychiatric care. He has written almost 100 scientific papers: “Psychology Atlas Educational Atlas” (1962, et al.), “Psychiatrist’s Handbook” (1990, et al.).

Since 1991 till now the position of the head of the department is occupied by Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor O. Napryienko (born 1950). In 1973 he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Kyiv Medical Institute, after which he worked for 3 years in the Chernihiv region as a physician and chief doctor of a rural hospital, and then for 10 years as a psychotherapist and junior researcher at the Institute of Urology and Nephrology. In 1976 he passed the specialization in the specialty “Psychiatry”. In 1981 he defended his PhD, and in 1991 he received his PhD in the same specialty. In Bogomolets National Medical University he has been working since 1986: as an assistant, then Assistant Professor and since 1991 head of the department of psychiatry and narcology. In 1992 he received the title of Professor, in 2004 – the honorary title of Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine.