Thomas Hanlon, PhD

Thomas Hanlon, PhD, a charter member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), was born on 19 June 1926 and died on 27 June 2016.

After earning his PhD in clinical psychology from Catholic University, Dr Hanlon had an extensive career in behavioral assessment and treatment evaluation, beginning in 1956 as a member of a psychiatric treatment team investigating the psychopharmacologic treatment of patients manifesting symptoms of schizophrenia. As a young clinical psychologist, Dr Hanlon worked in the research department of the Spring Grove Hospital Center, a large state hospital outside of Baltimore, MD. He was involved in the initial North American clinical trials of chlorpromazine led by Heinz Lehman at McGill University. The Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC) was established in 1966 as a state facility on the Spring Grove campus, with Albert Kurland, MD (ACNP charter member) as director; Dr Hanlon was appointed as a research scientist at the new MPRC. In 1977, the responsibility for the MPRC shifted to the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Dr Hanlon joined the faculty as an assistant professor. He published reports on methodological standards for treatment outcome studies and reported clinical trials on targeted antipsychotic drug studies, hemodialysis, and the evaluation of carbamazepine for relapse prevention.

Dr Hanlon had a career-long association with Friends Research Institute and resigned his faculty position in 1991 to devote full time to this foundation. He participated in early-treatment evaluation studies on the effectiveness of opioid antagonists in the treatment of heroin addiction, and was involved in designing and conducting numerous psychosocial outpatient treatment trials involving adults with substance use disorders under probation and/or parole supervision by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Examining the early developmental experiences of these individuals led to drug abuse prevention studies with incarcerated women, as well as with at-risk adolescent minority youth in community behavioral clinics and within the public school system. As a senior investigator he mentored junior investigators on prevention research, which included studies of sexually transmitted infections. Originally a senior investigator at the Social Research Center (SRC) of Friends Research Institute, Dr Hanlon became the Center’s Research Director and member of the SRC’s Executive Committee.

Dr Hanlon, a warm and delightful colleague during his professional career, enjoyed good health and loving friends and family until his death.