Julio Vallejo Ruiloba facts for kids
Julio Vallejo Ruiloba (born May 7, 1945 – died January 14, 2019) was an important Spanish doctor and expert in psychiatry. He was the head of the Psychiatry Department at the Universitat de Barcelona. He also served as the former president of the Spanish Psychiatry Society. He became a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia. Throughout his career, he wrote 56 books and over 350 scientific papers about mental health.
Biography
Julio Vallejo was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1945. He studied medicine at the Universitat de Barcelona, finishing in 1969. By 1971, he became a specialist in psychiatry. In 1978, he earned his doctorate (the highest degree) from the same university. He became a top-level professor in the Psychiatry Department in 1996.
He led several important groups, including the Spanish Foundation for Psychiatry and Mental Health. He was also the president of the Spanish Psychiatry Society from 2004 to 2008. He led the Spanish Biological Psychiatry Society from 1999 to 2003. Earlier, he was the president of the Catalan Psychiatry Society from 1981 to 1982. In 2015, he was honored by becoming a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia.
From 1993 until his death, he helped organize an important international meeting in Barcelona. This meeting, called the International Symposium on Current Issues and Controversies in Psychiatry, happened every year. He also helped organize similar meetings in Mexico in 2012 and 2014.
Even though he worked in general psychiatry, he mostly studied depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He published many scientific articles (over 350) and books (56 as the main author). He also contributed to over 100 other books. He was the director of the Spanish version of the American Journal of Psychiatry. He also helped edit the Spanish Journal of Legal Medicine.
Outside of his public roles, he also ran a private psychiatry center for 25 years. This center helped people with various psychological and psychiatric problems.
Contributions to Psychiatry
During his 40 years in psychiatry, Professor Julio Vallejo-Ruiloba built one of the best research teams in Spain and Latin America. His team made important discoveries in the field of mental health.
Vallejo and his team showed that different types of depression need different treatments. This was a new idea, as some other psychiatrists believed in a more general approach.
They also thought that sometimes doctors might over-diagnose "comorbidity." Comorbidity means when a person has two or more different health problems at the same time. Vallejo's team believed it was better to find the main problem and treat that first. They focused on treating one main illness rather than many different ones at once.
Vallejo also studied obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) very deeply. He worked to show the differences between OCD and other similar conditions. For example, he looked at hair pulling (trichotillomania) or fear of body deformation (BDD). These conditions might seem like OCD because they involve repeating actions. However, Vallejo's team showed they are different and need different treatments. His team published many scientific papers on this topic.
Main Books
- Introducción a la psicopatología y la psiquiatría (8th edition) (2016)
- Melancolía (2011)
- Proceso a la psiquiatría actual (2011)
- Doctor, estoy deprimido (2010) (This book was for general readers, not just scientists.)
- Tratado de psiquiatría Vol. I y II (2010)
- Temas y retos en la psicopatología actual (2007)
- Psiquiatría para no expertos (2006) (This book was also for general readers.)
- Estados obsesivos (2006)
- Patologías resistentes en psiquiatría (2005)
- Psiquiatría en atención primaria (2005)
- Trastornos de Personalidad (2004)
- La neurosis de angustia en el siglo XXI (2004)
- Manual de diagnóstico diferencial y tratamiento en psiquiatría (2001)
- Trastornos neuróticos (2001)
- Comorbilidad de los trastornos afectivos (2001)
- Trastornos afectivos: ansiedad y depresión (1999)
See also
In Spanish: Julio Vallejo Ruiloba para niños
