Michael B. First

Michael B. First M.D., (1956-) is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University, was a Research Psychiatrist in the Division of Behavioral Health and Policy Research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (retired), and maintains a psychopharmacology practice in Manhattan. Dr. First is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on psychiatric diagnostic and assessment issues and conducts expert forensic psychiatric evaluations in both criminal and civil matters. Dr. First is the Editor and Co-chair on the DSM-5-TR (Text Revision), the chief technical and editorial consultant on the World Health Organization’s ICD-11 Mental and Behavioral Disorders revision project, and was the Editorial and Coding Consultant for the DSM-5 and am external consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project.

Dr. First got his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University, received a Masters in Computer Science and a Medical Degree from the University of Pittsburgh, did his psychiatry residency at Columbia University, and did a fellowship in Biometrics Research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute under the direction of his mentor, Dr. Robert Spitzer.

Dr. First has authored or co-authored a number of books including the DSM-5-TR Handbook for Differential Diagnosis, Learning DSM-5-TR By Case Example, A Research Agenda for DSM-V, and Am I Okay?: A Layman's Guide to the Psychiatrist's Bible. He has also co-authored a number of psychiatric diagnostic assessment tools, including various versions of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5-RV [Research Version], SCID-5-CV (Clinician Version], SCID-5-CT [Clinical Trials Version], SCID-5-PD [for Personality Disorders], and SCID-5-AMPD [for the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders]), the Quick Structured Interview for DSM-5 (QuickSCID-5), and the Structured Clinical Interview for ICD-11 Mental and Behavioral disorders (SCII-11).