Alejandro Rodriguez (psychiatrist)

Alejandro Rodriguez (February 1918 – January 20, 2012) was a Venezuelan-American pediatrician and psychiatrist, known for his pioneering work in child psychiatry. He was the director of the division of child psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and conducted pivotal studies on autism and other developmental disorders in children.

Early life

Alejandro Rodriguez was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1918, to a businessman and a homemaker, where he spent his entire youth. After his graduation from the St. Ignacio School in Caracas, he entered the Universidad de Venezuela, where he earned his medical degree in 1939.

In 1942, he received a private scholarship for pediatrics training at Johns Hopkins. Upon his pediatrics residency, Rodriguez returned to Venezuela for 13 years to practice pediatrics.^[1]

Years at Johns Hopkins

Rodriguez then returned to the United States in 1956 to study psychiatry at Stanford. He stayed there for a year, then returned to Johns Hopkins to complete his child psychiatry training, where he was later employed under Leo Kanner in child psychiatry while Kanner was Division Chief in the 1950s during the early days of child psychiatry. Kanner mentored both Rodriguez and Dr. Leon Eisenberg, who became Johns Hopkins Division Chief after the retirement of Kanner, who is credited with discovering the syndrome of autism in 1935^[2] and by many is considered to be "the founding parent of child psychiatry", since he coined the term autism in 1935 and authored the first child psychiatry textbook. In 1959, while Eisenberg, following Kanner, was Division Chief of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins and Rodriguez reported to him, they co-authored – with Maria Rodriguez, Alejandro's wife – a famous paper describing school phobia syndrome as a variant of separation anxiety.^[3]

When Eisenberg resigned in 1968 to leave for Boston to become Chief of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Rodriguez became the director of the Division of Child Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, a position he kept until he retired in 1978. Rodriguez authored Handbook of Child Abuse and Neglect in 1977.^[4] Rodriguez continued seeing patients until age 85, according to his son, Dr. Ignacio R. Rodriguez, a Hopkins-trained neurologist practicing in Silver Spring, Maryland.^[5]

Death

Dr. Alejandro Rodriguez died of heart failure complications at his home in Palm City, Florida, on January 20, 2012. Rodriguez is survived by his second wife, Maria Consuelo Rodriguez, son, Dr. Ignacio R. Rodriguez, a neurologist practicing in Silver Spring, Maryland, and two grandchildren, Carlos and Maria Rodriquez.^[6]

Bibliography

Rodriguez A, Rodriguez M and Eisenberg L. (1959). The outcome of school phobia: a follow up study. Am J Psychiat. (December); 116:540-544. Rodriguez, A. (1977). Handbook of Child Abuse and Neglect. Medical Examination Publishing Company. ISBN 0874886481.

References

1. Palm City man known for child psychiatry studies dies two weeks shy of 94th birthday
2. Baltimore Sun death notice for Rodriguez
3. Rodriguez A, Rodriguez M, and Eisenberg L. "The outcome of school phobia: a follow up study". American Journal of Psychiatry. 1959 (December); 116:540-544.
4. Handbook of Child Abuse and Neglect
5. January 30, 2012 Death Notice Death notice from Johns Hopkins Medicine, "Alejandro Rodriguez, former director of Child Psychiatry, dies at 93: Venezuela native studied with field’s founders, carried on their legacy" by Ekaterina Pesheva
6. January 30, 2012, Death Notice Death notice from Johns Hopkins Medicine, written by Ekaterina Pesheva, "Alejandro Rodriguez, former director of Child Psychiatry, dies at 93: Venezuela native studied with field’s founders, carried on their legacy"