Igor Galynker, MD
Psychiatry
About Me
Dr. Igor Galynker, MD, PhD, is the Associate Chairman for Research in the Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and is the Founder and Director of the Richard and Cynthia Zirinsky Family Center for Bipolar. He is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine. He received his PhD in Chemistry from Columbia University and his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he was elected into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and completed his psychiatry residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He has since worked at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan (previously Beth Israel Medical Center), where he is the Associate Chairman for Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
In 2006, Galynker founded the Family Center for Bipolar (FCB), which is part of the Zirinsky Mood Disorders Center and is a clinical and research center treating children, adolescents, and adults. The Center has become a Center of Excellence in the Mount Sinai Health System and has been profiled in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He is also the Director of the Suicide Research and Prevention Laboratory at Mount Sinai, where ongoing research includes development and validation of scales to determine imminent suicidal risk of patients.
His clinical and research interests include behavioral addictions, bipolar disorder, suicide prevention, and the role of family in psychiatric illness. He has published on these topics in professional journals and in the lay press and has authored a book on family involvement in psychiatric treatment.
Dr. Galynker’s primary research includes the development of a proposed suicide-specific diagnosis, Suicide Crisis Syndrome. Interviews on this topic with MDedge can be found below:
• https://www.mdedge.com/podcasts/psychcast/dr-igor-galynker-identifying-suicide-crisis-syndrome-part-1
• https://www.mdedge.com/podcasts/psychcast/dr-igor-galynker-identifying-suicide-crisis-syndrome-part-2
Active funding:
AFSP Grant Galynker (PI) 03/01/20-02/28/22
The goal of this project is to create and test the feasibility and efficacy of the first multi-modal virtual human patient interaction (VHI) Emotional Self-Awareness (ESA) training program for clinicians working with patients at risk for suicide.
Role: PI
R34-NIMH Grant Galynker & Foster (Co-PI’s) 04/04/2019 – 03/31/2021
The goal of this project is to evaluate the impact of clinicians’ training in emotional self-awareness (ESA) on their patients’ suicidal outcomes, as assessed by the severity of patient suicidal ideation and of the suicide crisis syndrome.
Role: Co-PI
Language: English and Russian
Selected Publications:
Barzilay, S., Yaseen, Z. S., Hawes, M., Kopeykina, I., Ardalan, F., Rosenfield, P., . . . Galynker, I. (2018). Determinants and Predictive Value of Clinician Assessment of Short‐Term Suicide Risk. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 49(2), 614-626.
Bloch-Elkouby, S., Gorman, B., Schuck, A., Barzilay, S., Calati, R., Cohen, L. J., . . . Galynker, I. (2020). The suicide crisis syndrome: A network analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 67(5), 595-607.
Calati, R., Cohen, L. J., Schuck, A., Levy, D., Bloch-Elkouby, S., Barzilay, S., . . . Galynker, I. (2020). The Modular Assessment of Risk for Imminent Suicide (MARIS): A validation study of a novel tool for suicide risk assessment. Journal of Affective Disorders, 263, 121-128.
Calati, R., Nemeroff, C. B., Lopez-Castroman, J., Cohen, L. J., & Galynker, I. (2020). Candidate Biomarkers of Suicide Crisis Syndrome: What to Test Next? A Concept Paper. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 23(3), 192-205.
Galynker, I., Yaseen, Z. S., Cohen, A., Benhamou, O., Hawes, M., & Briggs, J. (2017). Prediction of suicidal behavior in high risk psychiatric patients using an assessment of acute suicidal state: the suicide crisis inventory. Depression and anxiety, 34(2), 147-158.
Language
English
Position
CLINICAL PROFESSOR | Psychiatry
Hospital Affiliations
- Mount Sinai Beth Israel
- Mount Sinai Brooklyn
- Mount Sinai Queens
- The Mount Sinai Hospital
Education
MD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
PhD, Columbia University
Internship, Internal Medicine
Mount Sinai Beth Israel
Residency, Psychiatry
Mount Sinai Hospital
Research
Another line of Galynker's research is suicide prevention. In 2010, with Dr. Zimri Yaseen he described a pre-suicidal state, the Suicide Trigger State, characterized by two patterns of thought and feeling: ruminative flooding and frantic hopelessness. This finding was later replicated in two other studies and modified scores on the STS scales were predictive of a suicide attempt within two months. In 2011, with Curren Katz he identified panic attacks as an independent risk factor for suicide attempts. Yaseen and Galynker also identified panic attacks with fear of dying as a specific risk factor for future suicide attempts. Galynker's current research aims to design an instrument to identify those at risk for imminent suicide. This project is funded by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Insurance Information
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Industry Relationships
Physicians and scientists on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai often interact with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology companies, and other outside entities to improve patient care, develop new therapies and achieve scientific breakthroughs. In order to promote an ethical and transparent environment for conducting research, providing clinical care and teaching, Mount Sinai requires that salaried faculty inform the School of their outside financial relationships.
Dr. Galynker has not yet completed reporting of Industry relationships.
Mount Sinai’s faculty policies relating to faculty collaboration with industry are posted on our website. Patients may wish to ask their physician about the activities they perform for companies.