Alexander H. Leighton facts for kids

Alexander H. Leighton (born July 17, 1908 – died August 11, 2007) was a very important sociologist and psychiatrist. He was a citizen of both the United States (where he was born) and Canada (from 1975).

He is famous for his work on the Stirling County Study in Canada. This study helped us learn a lot about how common mental health issues are. Dr. Leighton also made big contributions to a field called psychiatric epidemiology. This field studies how mental health problems spread in groups of people. He passed away at the age of 99 in Digby, Nova Scotia.

Early Life and Interests

Alexander Hamilton Leighton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 17, 1908. His parents were Archibald and Gertrude Leighton. He had a sister named Gertrude, who also became a specialist in law and psychiatry.

When he was young, Alexander became very interested in photography. He used a motion picture camera to record his adventures. In 1927, he filmed a canoe trip across Nova Scotia.

Later, in 1936, he made a film about the Mikmaw First Nation People. It showed them hunting porpoise and making oil to sell. He also filmed beaver in their natural homes. This study of beavers became his special project at Princeton University. He earned his first degree in biology from Princeton in 1932.

Dr. Leighton's Career

Dr. Leighton earned several degrees from top universities. After his degree from Princeton University in 1932, he got a master's degree from Cambridge University in England in 1934. He then earned his medical degree (M.D.) from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1936.

He received special awards called Guggenheim Fellowships in 1945 and 1947. From 1946 to 1966, he was a full professor at Cornell University. There, he led a program focused on social psychiatry. He also taught at other schools within Cornell.

Later, he moved to the Harvard School of Public Health. He was a professor there until 1975. After that, he became a Canadian National Health Scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He stayed there for 10 years. By 1999, he was a respected professor emeritus at Harvard and Dalhousie. He also advised the governments of Canada and the United States, and the World Health Organization.

The Stirling County Study

In 1948, Dr. Leighton started a very important project called the Stirling County Study. His wife, Dr. Jane Murphy, later joined him. This study is a longitudinal study, meaning it follows the same group of people over many years. It is still going on today!

The study looks at how common clinical depression and anxiety disorders are in a community in Canada. They also compared their findings with other communities in places like New York, Alaska, Nigeria, and Vietnam.

Dr. Jane Murphy took over leading the study in 1975. One important finding from the study is that about 5% of people in North America experience depression. This rate has stayed about the same over many years.

Awards and Recognition

Dr. Leighton received many honors for his important work. In 2003, a special conference called the Leighton Symposium was held. It celebrated the scientific contributions of both Dr. Leighton and his wife, Jane Murphy.

In 1975, he received the National Health Scientist Award from Health and Welfare Canada. He also won the Rema Lapouse Award and the McAlpin Mental Health Research Achievement Award. In 1994, he was given the Joseph Zubin Award.

Since 1999, there has been a special award named after him. It's called the "Alex Leighton Joint CPA-CAPE Award in Psychiatric Epidemiology." This award is given to people or groups who have done great work in studying mental health in Canada. They might have created new studies, methods, or taught others.