Faculty - Alan J. Barnes, M.D.
Additional Information
Clinical Interests
Research Interests
Educational Interests
Leadership
Publications
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Alan J. Barnes, M.D.
Associate Professor |
Dr. Barnes, an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, provides consultation services to community agencies, outpatient evaluation and treatment, and the clinical supervision of residents. Dr. Barnes graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University in 1966. He did an internship in Medicine and Pediatrics at Baltimore City Hospital. He served two years as a Flight Surgeon in the US Air Force, including one year in Vietnam. He completed both a residency in psychiatry and a Fellowship in Medical Education at Michigan State University. Dr. Barnes served as the Chair of the Mental Health Section of the American College Health Association. Dr. Barnes has a special interest in developmental issues of young adults, sexuality and sexual dysfunctions, mood disorders, and social anxiety.
From 1994 to 2002, Dr. Barnes served as the Coordinator of Psychiatric Services at the Student Health Care Center of the University of Florida. In this position, he was responsible for providing direct clinical care to students of the University of Florida and for coordinating the similar efforts of his psychiatric colleagues at the Student Mental Health Service. Currently, Dr. Barnes provides psychiatric consultation to community-based facilities, Stewart-Marchman Center in Daytona Beach and Hastings Youth Academy.
Dr. Barnes is interested in the developmental and psychopathological issues of late adolescence and young adulthood. He has seen many students for evaluation of their distress and to assess their need for psychopharmacologic agents. He participated in the development of Gatorwell, a wellness program, and in its offerings. He has also been active in the National Screening Days for Depression, Anxiety, Alcohol and Substance Abuse, and Eating Disorders.
Dr. Barnes has a number of specific clinical interests. During the last few years, he has been particularly attentive to the problem of Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder). Dr. Barnes has found that Social Phobia is a fairly common, but often overlooked condition. It is frequently a major predisposing condition for individuals with depression and substance abuse disorders. The somatic presentation of psychiatric disorders is a second area of interest. Often patients present with a focus on functional or physical complaints such as sleep disturbance, lack of energy, attention difficulties, heart racing or pounding, gastrointestinal distress, pain, and many other somatic complaints. Failure to identify the underlying psychological nature of somatic presentations can often lead to extensive and costly evaluation and lack of success in resolving patient distress. A third area of clinical interest is sexual dysfunction, its association with other psychiatric conditions, and the frequent side effect problems of treatment with serotonergic agents. A final area of clinical interest remains more theoretical than implemented. Dr. Barnes has long been concerned with the problem of the academically capable student who does not make effective progress. These students are more often identified in graduate programs. Clinically, he worked with a number of “perpetual students” and helped resolve the conditions or issues that impeded their academic progress. Early identification and intervention with at-risk students could be a highly beneficial clinical endeavor.
Research and Scholarly Interests:
Dr. Barnes’ research and scholarly interests are predominantly the outgrowth of his clinical responsibilities. In the area of prevention and early intervention, he has served on the Task Force for National Health Objectives in Higher Education of the American College Health Association and participated in developing Healthy Campus 2010, a companion volume to Healthy People 2010, providing guidelines for colleges and universities to apply principles of prevention and early intervention to campus settings.
Dr. Barnes has reviewed and presented on the need for campus-based mental health services in relation to demographic and epidemiological trends that will influence the size and composition of the student population and the problems that students may manifest during their time in the academic setting.
He has collected extensive case material on Social Phobia in students seen at the Student Mental Health Service and presented his findings at local and national meetings. Dr. Barnes hopes to do more detailed analysis of this data and prepare material for publication or seek support for more in depth research on the problem in the university population.
He has reviewed patients with somatic presentation of psychiatric conditions and presented at the annual meeting of the American College Health Association and to physician assistants. This study may form the basis for a review article on the topic.
Educational Interests and Accomplishments:
Dr. Barnes has long been interested and involved in the education of health care and related professionals. As part of his education, he was a Fellow in Medical Education at Michigan State University where he received a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology. For several years, Dr. Barnes was quite active in the Association for Academic Psychiatry, as a presenter, as a committee member, and as an officer.
Currently Dr. Barnes provides supervision to psychiatric residents, graduate students in psychiatric nursing, and graduate students in other mental health professions. He has also been a member of the Undergraduate Psychiatric Education Committee where he presented lectures, was a small group leader for Human Behavior and Essentials of Patient Care, and provided elective clinical placements for medical students.
Dr. Barnes is involved in post-graduate education in several ways. He is a frequent presenter at national and regional meetings of the American College Health Association. Among the topics he has presented on are Anxiety Disorders (particularly Social Phobia), Sexual Function and Depression, Psychiatric Diagnosis, Somatic Presentation of Psychiatric Disorders, Tobacco, Healthy Campus 2010, and the Future of Student Mental Health. He has also presented some of these topics locally.
Dr. Barnes is interested in Psychiatric Diagnosis and Clinical Judgment, mostly from an educational and process perspective: How do clinicians interact with patients, gather data, decide what is relevant, make diagnostic judgments, and select clinical interventions? How can this process best be taught to young clinicians? What is the observational and symptomatic basis for the diagnostic and clinical choices? He has presented on the understanding and application of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual to trainees and mental health professionals and organized a full-day workshop for clinicians on DSM-IV.
Dr. Barnes participation on the Task Force for National Health Objectives in Higher Education has contributed to the publication of Healthy Campus 2010: Making It Happen.
Dr. Barnes was the Coordinator of Psychiatric Services at the Student Mental Health Service of the University of Florida from February 1994 to February 2002. He helped guide the development of the psychiatric staff and the services offered. He recently served as the President of the Mental Health Section of the American College Health Association. Dr Barnes’ said that his major accomplishment during his presidential year “… was to focus greater attention of the contributions of the Section Members to the field of student mental health and to the activities of the Association.” Dr. Barnes has been a long-standing member of the Task Force on National Health Objectives in Higher Education. He was instrumental in assisting the Task Force in obtaining Federal support for the publication and distribution of Healthy Campus 2010.
Healthy Campus 2010: Making It Happen. American College Health Association, 2000.