Scott R. Beach, M.D.

Scott R. Beach, M.D., is an assistant professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Program Director for the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/McLean Hospital Adult Psychiatry Residency. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Virginia (UVA). He remained at UVA to complete his psychiatry residency, serving as Chief Resident. He completed a Psychosomatic Medicine Fellowship at MGH before pursuing a Dupont-Warren Research Fellowship there as part of Jeff Huffman’s Cardiac Psychiatry Research Program (CPRP).

Clinically, Dr. Beach has worked as an attending physician in the psychiatric emergency room and on inpatient consultation services since 2011. He was previously Director of the PGY-3 Resident Psychopharmacology Clinic and Director of the Infectious Disease Consultation Service, providing psychiatric care in the co-located HIV clinic at MGH. Areas of clinical expertise include QT prolongation with psychiatric medications, catatonia and related syndromes, and patients who deceive providers.

Within the realm of education and administration, he served as Co-Site Director for the HMS Psych 700 Introduction to Psychopathology Course for several years, and was a member of the HMS Admissions Committee from 2012-2017. He also served as Co-Director of the Department’s Grand Rounds Committee from 2015-2018, and has won numerous teaching awards from medical students and residents.

From a research standpoint, Dr. Beach has continued his work with the CPRP, focusing on collaborative care models in patients with heart disease, positive emotions and their predictive value following acute coronary syndromes, and QT prolongation with antidepressants. He is also leading a pilot study investigating neuroimaging and gene expression in patients with catatonia. He has been a co-investigator on grants from the National Institute for Health and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.