Professor George Mendelson

Biography

Professor George Mendelson graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Melbourne in 1970. He became a member of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) in 1976, and in 1986 obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Monash University.

Dr Mendelson is an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Medicine at Monash University. At the end of 2001 he retired from the positions of Clinical Director and Consultant Psychiatrist at the Caulfield Pain Management and Research Centre, at Caulfield General Medical Centre, but remains involved in the Centre’s research activities. From 1979 until 2002 he held appointments as a Visiting Consultant Psychiatrist to the Division of Adult Psychiatry at Prince Henry’s Hospital and Monash Medical Centre.

Professor Mendelson has been a member of the Ethical Practice Committee of the RANZCP since 2004. In May 2006 he was elected as Chair of the Ethical Practice Committee by the General Council of the RANZCP, and is a member of the RANZCP’s Board of Practice Standards.

In 1999, Professor Mendelson was elected a Foundation Fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, and he is a member of the Examination Committee of the Faculty.

He is a former President of the Australian Pain Society, and was a member of the Council of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) between 1993 and 1996. From 2002 until 2005 he was a member of the IASP Committee on Research. Since 2005 he has been the Chair of the IASP’s Special Interest Group on Clinical-Legal Issues in Pain.

Since 1988 Professor Mendelson has been a member of the Victorian Branch Committee of the RANZCP. In 2003-04 he was the Honorary Secretary of the Victorian Branch Committee, and for many years has been the Convenor of the Forensic Psychiatry Subcommittee.

He was the Chairman of the Committee on Ethical Issues of the International Association for the Study of Pain from 1993 until 2000. From 1988 until 1996 he was a member of the Animal Ethics Committee, National Research Institute of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Melbourne.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and has been a member of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics since 1991.

He has published over 100 articles, reviews and book chapters, and is the author of “Psychiatric Aspects of Personal Injury Claims,” published in 1988 in the USA by Charles C. Thomas.

Education and Qualifications

1965-70	The University of Melbourne, The Royal Melbourne Hospital Clinical School
1970	Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB BS), The University of Melbourne
1976	Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (FRANZCP)
1986	Doctor of Medicine (MD), Monash University (MD Thesis: Psychological Factors Affecting Response to Acupuncture Treatment of Chronic Pain)
1999	Fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (FFPMANZCA)

Professional Activities

Chair, Special Interest Group on Clinical/Legal Issues in Pain, International Association for the Study of Pain

Senior Examiner, Australian Medical Council

Member, Examination Committee, Faculty of Pain Medicine, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists

Member, Board of Practice Standards, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists

Chair, Ethical Practice Committee, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists

Member, WorkCover Advisory Committee, Victorian Branch, Australian Medical Association

Member of the Editorial Board, Pain Research and Management (The Journal of the Canadian Pain Society)

Member of the Editorial Board, Journal of Law and Medicine

Editorial Consultant, Psychiatry, Psychology and Law (Australian Academic Press)

Referee, Pain

Referee, European Journal of Pain

Referee, Medical Journal of Australia

Referee, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry

Research Interests

Psychiatric aspects of chronic pain

Compensation and litigation following personal injury

Rating of psychiatric impairment

Posttraumatic psychiatric reactions

Publications

Psychiatric aspects of litigation and pain. In Schmidt RF, Willis WD (eds): Encyclopedia of Pain, Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, 2007, pp. 1998-2003.

What does psychiatry encompass? In Bloch S, Singh BS (eds): Foundations of Clinical Psychiatry, 3rd edition. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007, pp. 69-90. (with A.Jablensky)

Survey of methods for the rating of psychiatric impairment in Australia. Journal of Law and Medicine 2004; 11:446-81.

Malingering pain in the medico-legal context. Clinical Journal of Pain 2004; 20:423-32. (with D. Mendelson)

Outcome-related compensation: in search of a new paradigm. In Halligan PW, Bass C, Oakley DA (eds): Malingering and Illness Deception. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 220- 231.

Medicolegal aspects of chronic pain. In Jensen TS, Wilson PR, Rice ASC (eds): Clinical Pain Management: Chronic Pain. London: Edward Arnold, 2003: pp. 173-188. (with D. Mendelson, NM Hadler)

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder – a nomogenic disorder? Proceedings of Expert Evidence: Causation, Proof and Presentation conference, International Institute of Forensic Studies, Monash University, July 2002.

“Functional somatic syndromes” and “idiopathic environmental intolerance”: new labels for the new millennium. Australasian Forensic Psychiatry Bulletin, November 2000, No. 18, pp. 9-12.

Medical expert evidence and reports. Seminar Papers, Advanced Civil Litigation Seminar on “Expert Evidence,” Law Institute of Victoria, Melbourne, 22 May 2000.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and litigation. Australasian Forensic Psychiatry Bulletin, May 1999, No. 15, pp. 3-7.