Dr. Komrad was an attending psychiatrist on the Treatment Resistant Psychotic Disorders Unit at Sheppard Pratt Hospital for 15 years, where he continues to train residents in psychotherapy and psychopharmacology and runs the Ethics Consultation Service and Hospital Ethics Committee for the Sheppard Pratt Health System throughout Maryland. He is also a member of the Ethics Committee of the American Psychiatric Association, which oversees matters of ethics and ethical guidelines for this national and international organization of psychiatrists. He writes a regular column, “Practicing Ethically,” about ethics in psychiatry for The Maryland Psychiatrist for which he has won the Carol Davis Ethics Award (twice) from the American Psychiatric Association He also writes the “Ask the Doctor” column for the Maryland chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). He has a private practice in general psychiatry with a special interest in treating mood disorders, personality disorders and schizophrenia. His technique is to combine psychopharmacology and psychotherapy, a combination treatment that has become increasingly rare in the contemporary managed-care environment. In particular, Dr. Komrad uses these techniques to help people with serious, major mental illness rehabilitate to a higher level of functioning. He often consults to colleagues on difficult cases.
Dr. Komrad is the psychiatric consultant to the Maryland Transportation Authority and chairs its Suicide Prevention Task Force, which is studying how to prevent suicide jumpings from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and educates the media about responsible reporting on suicide and the treatment of depression.
He has lectured throughout the country on a variety of topics in psychiatry. Dr. Komrad also appears widely on TV and radio to discuss topics in psychiatry and teaches psychiatry to residents and primary care physicians. He has been the host of a nationally syndicated weekly radio talkshow about psychiatry, and was the psychiatrist on a medical talkshow that broadcast to over 40 million listeners around the world. In addition, Dr. Komrad has served as consultant in the development of a major Hollywood film and a dramatic TV serial, both about psychiatrists, consulted on books and screenplays and even played the part of a psychiatrist in a movie all in an attempt to create more accurate portrayals of psychiatrists and the mentally ill on TV and in the movies
Dr. Komrad was named as a “Distinguished Fellow” of the American Psychiatric Association— a special distinction, “for exceptional contributions to the community and the profession of psychiatry.” He was voted by professional peers as “One of Maryland’s Top Mental Health Practitioners” and profiled for this and , separately, named as one of the Top Doctors in Baltimore Magazine. In 2013 he was awarded the NATIONAL EXEMPLARY PSYCHIATRIST AWARD by NAMI National Alliance on Mental Illness. He was awarded the MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR AWARD in 2013 by the Baltimore chapter of NAMI.
Dr. Komrad’s book was published on August 28th, 2012: You Need Help: A Step-by-Step Plan to Convince Your Loved One to Get Counseling (Hazelden Press)