Top Doctors 2025

David C. Henderson, MD

Chief of Psychiatry, BMC

(He/Him)

Dr. David C. Henderson is a psychiatrist and the Chief of Psychiatry at BMC, and professor and Chair of Psychiatry at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. Presently, he also serves as Co-Director of the NIMH T32 Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine/Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Global Mental Health Clinical Research Fellowship.

Dr. Henderson has worked internationally for the past 25 years in resource-limited settings, and areas impacted by mass violence, disasters, and complex emergencies. He has conducted numerous studies of trauma in areas of mass violence and develops programs to assist with vulnerable populations, including in Bosnia, Cambodia, East Timor, Ethiopia, Haiti, Liberia, New Orleans, New York City, Rwanda, Peru, South Africa, and Somaliland, among other places. In the United States, Dr. Henderson has conducted more than 30 randomized clinical trials among severely mentally ill populations. His research interests include treatment-resistant schizophrenia and the use of psychopharmacological and antipsychotic agents in the treatment of schizophrenia. Dr. Henderson is a leader in understanding the impact of antipsychotic agents on weight, cardiovascular disease, and lipid and glucose metabolism and the development of interventions and prevention strategies.

Dr. Henderson received his medical degree from University of Massachusetts Medical School and his bachelor's degree from Tufts University. He completed his residency at MGH and trained as chief resident and a research fellow at the Freedom Trail Clinic at the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center in Boston. Dr. Henderson is a member of the National Medical Association; New England Medical Society; Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society of Harvard-Radcliffe; and Black Psychiatrists of America Executive Committee. He has served as a Distinguished Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association since 2006 and is also the U.S. editor of the International Journal of Culture and Mental Health.