Richard Bryant

Richard Allan Bryant (born 17 August 1960) is an Australian medical scientist. He is Scientia Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and director of the UNSW Traumatic Stress Clinic, based at UNSW and Westmead Institute for Medical Research.

Education After attending North Sydney Boys High School, Bryant completed his B.A. (Hons) in Psychology at the University of Sydney in 1983; his Master of Clinical Psychology at Macquarie University in 1986; and his Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Macquarie University in 1989. He was awarded a Doctor of Science at the University of New South Wales in 2016. He is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society, Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Career In 1989 Bryant commenced working at Westmead Hospital as a clinical psychologist, responsible for managing trauma and burns patients. In 1993 he established the Traumatic Stress Clinic at Westmead Hospital. In 1995 he joined the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales as a Lecturer, and was promoted to Professor in 2002. Bryant was appointed a Scientia Professor in 2005.

Bryant has worked on many Australian and international projects aimed at reducing PTSD and other mental health disorders following trauma exposure. These include the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, the 2004 Asian tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina. For example, he worked with the Thai Ministry of Health to develop a mental health initiative to manage the effects of the tsunami on mental health. Bryant adapted his protocol in the aftermath of the major Black Saturday bushfires in Australia, which government authorities adopted as the mental health response to the disaster. In addition, he served on the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 Working Group on Traumatic Stress Disorders and the World Health Organisation's ICD-11 Traumatic Stress Advisory Group to develop the new diagnostic definitions of traumatic stress disorders.

Traumatic Stress Clinic Bryant's Traumatic Stress Clinic, founded in 1993, is a major not-for-profit treatment centre. It has conducted many research activities pertaining to the development, maintenance, and treatment of traumatic stress. It conducts treatment programs for PTSD, Prolonged Grief Disorder, PTSD in emergency service workers (police, fire, and ambulance workers), and PTSD in journalists.

Research interests Acute stress disorder Acute stress disorder was a new disorder introduced in 1994 to describe acute traumatic stress in the initial month after trauma that is predictive of chronic PTSD. Bryant is widely recognised as the world's leading expert on acute stress disorder.

Grief Bryant has conducted some of the first studies into cognitive factors that underpin Prolonged Grief Disorder from normal bereavement, including memory styles, appraisals, and how people imagine their futures. Bryant has also conducted the first studies of different neural circuits between Prolonged Grief Disorder and other psychological conditions. In addition, he conducted a major controlled trial of treating Prolonged Grief Disorder that demonstrated that reliving memories of the loss is critical to optimising treatment response.

Global mental health Bryant has collaborated with the World Health Organisation to develop a mental health intervention that can be trained to lay health providers in countries that lack mental health specialists. International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies Lifetime Achievement Award, 2018 Association for Psychological Science James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award, 2018 Australian Society of Psychiatric Research Founders Medal, 2016 Australian Laureate Fellowship, 2009 Australian Association for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award, 2006 International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies Robert F. Laufer Award, 2001 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, 2000 Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Academy Medal, 1999 Companion in the Order of Australia (AC), for his work in Indigenous and refugee mental health, and as an adviser to government and international organisations"

Selected publications Books Bryant, R.A., & Harvey, A.G. (2000). Acute Stress disorder: A handbook of theory, assessment, and treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Boyce, P.M., Harris, A.W.F., Drobny, J.V., Lampe, L., Starcevic, V., & Bryant, R.A. (2015). The Sydney Handbook of Anxiety Disorders: A Guide to the Symptoms, Causes and Treatments of Anxiety Disorders. Sydney: The University of Sydney. Bryant, R.A. (2016). Acute Stress Disorder: What it is, and How to Treat it? New York: Guilford.

Journal articles Bryant, R.A. & Harvey, A.G. (1998). Relationship of acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder following mild traumatic brain injury. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 625–629. Bryant, R.A, et al. (1998). Treatment of acute stress disorder: A comparison of cognitive behavioral therapy and supportive counseling. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 862–866. Bryant, R.A., et al. (1998). Assessing acute stress disorder: Psychometric properties of a structured clinical interview. Psychological Assessment, 10, 215–220. Bryant, R.A., et al. (1999). Treating acute stress disorder: An evaluation of cognitive behavior therapy and counseling techniques. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1780–1786. Bryant, R.A., et al. (2000). A prospective study of acute psychophysiological arousal, acute stress disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 341–344. Bryant, R.A., et al. (2008). Enhanced amygdala and medial prefrontal activation during nonconscious processing of fear in posttraumatic stress disorder: An fMRI study. Human Brain Mapping, 29, 517–523. Bryant, R.A., et al. (2008). Treatment of acute stress disorder: A randomized controlled trial. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65, 659–667. Bryant, R.A. (2008). Disentangling mild traumatic brain injury and stress reactions. New England Journal of Medicine, 358, 525–527. Bryant, R.A., et al. (2011). A randomized controlled effectiveness trial of cognitive behaviour therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder in terrorist-affected people in Thailand. World Psychiatry, 10, 205–209. Bryant, R.A., et al. (2013). A multi-site analysis of the fluctuating course of posttraumatic stress disorder. JAMA: Psychiatry, 70, 839–846. Bryant, R.A, et al. (2014). Treating prolonged grief disorder: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA: Psychiatry, 71, 1332–1339.