Emory Psychiatric Community Obituary

John “Mickey” Nardo, MD, an adjunct faculty member in our department for forty years, died on February 19. Born December 3, 1941 in Chattanooga, TN, he was the rare physician who excelled in patient care, medical education, and research. Trained first in medical school and internal medicine at the University of Tennessee, and following fellowship at NIH in Immunology & Rheumatology, he served in the military in the late sixties-early seventies. There he became fascinated with the life of the mind, and came to Emory to do his psychiatry residency. This was followed by psychoanalytic training, for which he commuted to the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training & Research in NYC, then the sponsoring Institute for the Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute (EUPI). After finishing his psychiatry residency, he assumed the position of Medical Director for the Psychiatric Emergency Room at Grady (1977-1979), then Director of Residency Training for the Emory University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry (1978-1984), and subsequently as Director of Medical Student Education for the department (1984-1986). Following completion of his psychoanalytic training in 1984, he became an indispensable teacher, supervisor, and pillar of the Emory psychiatric and psychoanalytic communities. His teaching accomplishments were recognized by three departmental awards: Best Basic Science Professor (1984-1986), Chairman’s Teaching Award (1986), and Best Supervisor (1991-1992). He was also a much sought after clinician in private practice. He was known to be able to translate complicated clinical concepts into language understandable to students and patients alike. He retired in 2003 from formal teaching and private practice, but remained active as a clinical supervisor, psychiatric scholar, and psychiatrist volunteer. For example, he volunteered as a psychiatrist at two local clinics in Jasper, GA, and became Board Vice Chair at the Willow Creek Substance Abuse Treatment Program in Ellijay, GA. He became interested in researching the overuse of polypharmacy, co-authoring in 2015 an article in the British Medical Journal (BMJ): “Restoring Study 329: efficacy and harms of paroxetine and imipramine in treatment of major depression in adolescence.” This article remains in the top 5% of all of the research articles scored by Altmetrics, even over a year after it was published (scoring 1352). He also was a co-author on a follow-up paper, published in 2016, that again raised concerns about the safety and efficacy of these medications with this population during the continuation phase of treatment (Noury et al., 2016). He was a prolific blogger about psychoanalytic and mental health issues (http://1boringoldman.com), contributing his wisdom and scholarly work to the community at large. In January 2017, Emory School of Medicine promoted him to the rank of Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences in recognition of his devoted service and major contributions.