Brian Barnett, MD is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and Director of the Psychiatric Treatment-Resistance Program at Cleveland Clinic, where he leads care for patients with the most refractory psychiatric conditions while simultaneously advancing the science through active clinical research.
Dr. Barnett completed medical school at Vanderbilt University, during which he served as a Fulbright-Fogarty Fellow in Public Health in Malawi. He completed his psychiatry residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital, followed by fellowships in addiction psychiatry at Partners Healthcare and forensic psychiatry at University Hospitals/Case Western Reserve University — earning triple board certification in general, addiction, and forensic psychiatry, a distinction held by very few psychiatrists in the country.
His primary research interests are mood disorders, psychedelics, interventional psychiatry, and catatonia — a serious and often underrecognized neuropsychiatric syndrome in which he is a nationally recognized expert. He has served as site principal investigator on clinical trials evaluating ketamine and psychedelics for generalized anxiety disorder, treatment-resistant depression, bipolar depression, postpartum depression, and adjustment disorder. His clinical expertise spans advanced pharmacological treatments including Spravato (esketamine), MAOIs, tricyclic antidepressants, and pramipexole.
Dr. Barnett is also a prolific writer on mental health and addiction for general audiences. His commentary has appeared in Scientific American, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, STAT News, The Hill, Vice, and dozens of other outlets. He has been interviewed by CNN, NBC News, ABC News, National Public Radio, and major print and digital publications on the science and policy of psychedelic medicine.
