Dr. Sheehan has been at the forefront of research in psychiatry for over four decades. Known for his pioneering work on the treatment of anxiety and panic disorders and his contributions on suicidality, he is also an internationally recognized expert on psychiatric diagnosis and assessment.

Dr. Sheehan is the author of over 350 publications including his bestseller The Anxiety Disease. Cumulatively, his publications in peer reviewed journals have been cited over 74,000 times. He is the author and copyright holder of the widely used Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), the MINI Kid, the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), and the Sheehan-Suicidality Tracking Scale (S-STS). These instruments and others he created have been translated into over 80 languages and are used worldwide in clinical trials and epidemiology research.

A dynamic and engaging speaker, he has been invited to give over 2,000 lectures in 70+countries on anxiety and mood disorders, suicidality, psychopharmacology, biological psychiatry and psychiatric assessment. He has been a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP), the International Academy for Biomedical and Drug Research, the U.S. Congress, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He has served as a grant reviewer for the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) and on the editorial boards of many journals. He has also served on the national and international advisory boards of numerous pharmaceutical companies and nonprofit foundations devoted to improving mental health.

Dr. Sheehan was born and educated in Ireland. He received his medical degree from University College Dublin School of Medicine in 1970. After psychiatry residency at Mass General Hospital, he was on the full-time faculty of Harvard Medical School for 12 years. In 1985, he relocated to the University of South Florida (USF) College of Medicine where he held appointments as Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Psychology, and Director of Psychiatric Research. He also completed his MBA at USF.

Dr. Sheehan is currently Distinguished University Health Professor Emeritus at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists, a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.