Interview with Darrel Regier, M.D.

Scope and content:

The interview with Dr. Regier is of critical importance for the comprehensive retrospective evaluation of the long-term impact of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. Dr. Regier not only played a key role in the preparation and implementation of the mission, but also successfully continued to help develop the quality and accessibility of mental health services in Russia after the U.S.S.R. collapse. Dr. Regier also continued to tackle the issue of psychiatric abuse in China. In his interview, Dr. Regier gives a historical overview of the development of diagnostic criteria that was subsequently used during the U.S. State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. relating to psychiatric abuse. This interview provides a great description of the methodology used during the interviews. Dr. Regier also describes the NIMH goals, unique role and contribution to the 1989 mission and shares his insights about the factors that made it possible to weaponize psychiatry against dissidents in the Soviet Union. Dr. Regier also tells about his role in the work of Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission in the area on mental health care in Russia post the Soviet Union breakup.

Olena Protsenko, a Post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, conducted this interview remotely over the Zoom application.

Biographical / historical:

Dr. Darrel Regier was the Scientific Director of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. and coordinated all aspects of the clinical assessment procedure. Dr. Regier completed twenty-five years at the National Institute of Mental Health (N.I.M.H.), during which time he directed three research divisions in the areas of epidemiology, prevention, clinical research, and health services research. Dr. Regier is currently a Senior Scientist at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, in the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine and Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University. He also serves as an independent senior scientific consultant to the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.) on DSM-5 and research related issues.

Access and use