About Me

Dean F. MacKinnon, M.D., is an associate professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He studied intellectual history as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania before attending medical school at the University of California, San Diego. After a psychiatric residency at Johns Hopkins and a fellowship in mood disorders and psychiatric genetics, he joined the faculty. In addition to clinical work focused on affective disorders, he has been involved in research on the causes of mood and anxiety disorders, and runs the first-year medical student course on brain, mind, and behavior.

Published in 2011, this presents a model to understand how the symptoms of mental illness can be disruptions of specific mental functions.

Published in 2016, this is a case-based overview of the different kinds of problem that can contribute to the failure of antidepressant medications to resolve depressive symptoms.