Samuel Isaac Cohen

Short abstract

One of the pioneers of liaison psychiatry

Samuel Cohen was professor of psychiatry at the Royal London Hospital from 1984 to 1990, and on the clinical staff of the hospital from 1961. He was at the forefront of developments in what became known as liaison psychiatry. His greatest administrative achievement was to persuade 10 surgeons and physicians at the London to surrender two beds each, and to open Rachel ward as a psychiatric ward within the general teaching hospital.

Figure 1.

As a clinician he was successful at helping people with complex psychosomatic problems, which had baffled a succession of other specialists. He was sharp in the recognition of problems arising from misuse of alcohol, tranquillisers, or cannabis, and particularly insightful regarding symptoms arising from the abrupt discontinuation of prescribed drugs or alcohol.

After house jobs in Cardiff, Sam trained in medicine at the Hammersmith and at the Brompton Chest hospitals in London, returning to Cardiff as a lecturer on the medical unit. He had contracted tuberculosis as a medical student and his career was interrupted in 1950 by a flare-up of pulmonary tuberculosis, for which he underwent therapeutic pneumothorax.

He entered psychiatry in 1956, training at the Maudsley Hospital and obtaining the diploma in psychological medicine in 1958. He developed a particular interest in psychosomatic disorders and was one of the first psychiatrists on the staff of the London Hospital.

In 1968 he was invited to Israel and devoted a year to moving and re-establishing the Ezrath Nashim hospital in Jerusalem as a modern psychiatric centre. He was opposed to policies of “seclusion” of disturbed patients and was proud to take away restraints that had been used on patients.

Sam was chairman of the medical council of the Royal London Hospital, where he facilitated the start of the helicopter emergency service, and supported the obstetrician and gynaecologist Professor Wendy Savage through a time when community obstetrics faced daunting accusations.

After retirement Sam continued clinical work as a visiting professor in Australia and New Zealand until 1998. He was a scholarly individual and he continued to study, publishing papers concerning the Book of Psalms and their structure.

He had chronic lymphatic leukaemia and, while receiving chemotherapy, had a series of infections, including a recurrence of the tuberculosis from his youth.

He leaves a wife, Vivienne; two children; and 12 grandchildren.

Samuel Isaac Cohen, former professor of psychiatry Royal London Hospital (b South Wales 1925; q Cardiff 1948; MD, FRCP, FRCPsych), d 9 September 2004.