Jonathan O. Cole, at 83; pioneered use of drugs in psychiatry

Internationally known for his breakthrough research on the use of drugs to treat psychiatric illnesses, the former chief of psychopharmacology at McLean Hospital in Belmont was so beloved by his patients that in 1992 they established the Mental Health Consumer Resource Center there in his name.

“Dr. Cole’s clinical work and research are considered by many to be the foundation for psychopharmacologial treatments in which millions of people have found and continue to find lasting relief,’’ Scott L. Rauch, president and psychiatrist in chief at McLean, said in a statement. “His groundbreaking research in developing more effective drug treatments and behavioral therapies has improved the quality of care for psychiatric patients worldwide.’’

Dr. Cole, who in the 1960s was the first director of the psychopharmacology research branch at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., died May 26 of complications of renal disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

He was 83 and lived in Cambridge.

His wife, Bonnie Donham, said Dr. Cole had been on kidney dialysis three times a week for more than three years, but went into his office at McLean and saw patients on his two free days “as long as he could.’’

“Dr. Cole believed in the empowerment of patients and that if people helped others, then they would feel better about themselves,’’ said Evie Barkin, executive director of the resource center. “He was not in it for the money. If a patient couldn’t pay, he still treated them. He really was a Santa Claus.’’

Dr. Cole’s contributions in treating psychiatric problems were enormous, colleagues said. Dr. Carl Salzman of Beth Israel Deaconess, who is also professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, first met him in 1967 when both were working at the National Institute of Mental Health.

“He was a young man appointed to this job basically without any real guide, without a predecessor to research drugs that were just being released for clinical use, and he created the basic research for psychopharmacology throughout the country. Through his ability to provide funding for the NIMH, he fostered the research into these new drugs to see whether they were safe and useful.’’

For the research, Dr. Cole recruited the country’s best brains to work with him at the institute and to set up the best trials, Salzman said. He fostered collaborative research between in-patient and out-patient units and between doctors. “This is before there were computers, so all of the knowledge was in Dr. Cole’s head. Yet he was just a regular guy.’’

Dr. Cole joined McLean in 1973 and soon became chief of psychopharmacology and a mentor to young psychiatrists. “Dr. Cole was a leader in the teaching of clinical psychopharmacology to young psychiatrists, turning out generations of leading psychiatrists from McLean’s training program,’’ said Dr. Alexander Bodkin, director of McLean’s clinical psychopharmacology research program.

Dr. Cole coauthored the American Psychiatric Association’s “Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology’’ through four editions.

He had a prominent role in the development and Federal Drug Administration approval of many of the currently used antidepressants, Bodkin said, including Prozac, Trazodone, and Wellbutrin.

“He worked to preserve the best of the original antidepressants, called MAO inhibitors, which have fallen from wide use because of a small risk of potentially serious adverse interactions with certain foods, but which are uniquely helpful to a sizable class of depressed and anxious patients for whom nothing else works,’’ Bodkin said.

In spite of his important contributions, Bodkin said, Dr. Cole “was instinctively modest, even self-effacing, to the extent you never would guess you were in the presence of an immensely important person. He was egalitarian to a fault, as well as generous, respectful, and loyal.’’

Barbara Beake was Dr. Cole’s administrative assistant at McLean for 35 years and in the 1980s worked with him on one of the clinical trials “that helped prove Prozac was going to be one of the new antidepressants.’’

“He had helped bring it to market because he believed in it,’’ she said. “He was totally straightforward and honest.’’

After Prozac was marketed, she recalled, there were reported instances of suicide by people who had taken it. Dr. Cole investigated for links, but his study bore out that Prozac was “a marvelous drug when used responsibly,’’ Beake said. “That was Dr. Cole’s mantra.’’

Still, while the number of Prozac users committing suicide was small, he urged manufacturers and federal regulators to take the matter more seriously.

To both staff and patients, he was “Jolly Old Cole’’ with his zany ties and down-to-earth manner, belying what his wife and colleagues called his “amazing intellect.’’ He always took on “the most treatment resistance cases,’’ Beake said.

Deborah L. Levy, director of the psychology research laboratory at McLean, described him as “a super diagnostician. He would always pick up on things that others missed, and because he had a wealth of clinical experience, he was able to clarify very complex clinical scenarios in a way that improved the patient’s care.’’

To friends, he was a renaissance man, “loving music, poetry, good food, a good glass of wine or beer, and good company,’’ said his longtime friend, Dr. Ernest Gosline, a psychiatrist of Clinton, N.Y. “He had a touch of a bon vivant.’’

He could recite the poetry of Robert Service and “knew all the patter songs in the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas,’’ said Gosline, a violinist. “I think he chose the challenge of the human mind because it was the biggest challenge he could find. Jonathan breathed knowledge as Mozart breathed music.’’

Jonathan Otis Cole was born in Boston, one of two children of Arthur Harrison and Anna (Steckel) Cole.

He grew up in Cambridge, where his father taught economics at Harvard.

He graduated from Milton Academy in 1942 and enrolled at Harvard College, where he spent 1942 and 1943 before enrolling in 1944 in the middle of World War II at Cornell University Medical College in New York, where he met Gosline. “We were in the war class,’’ Gosline said. They graduated in 1947.

Dr. Cole did his internship in Boston at what was then Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1947 and 1948 and his residency at Payne Whitney Clinic at New York Hospital from 1948 through 1951, prior to serving in the US Army during the Korean War. He was at Fort Bragg, N.C., caring for returned soldiers, and at the 141st Army Hospital in Fukuoka, Japan.

While in the Army, Dr. Cole met Kathleen Gleason, an Army psychiatric social worker.

They married at Fort Bragg in 1952. Gosline was their best man.

Back home, Dr. Cole was a psychiatrist and Superintendent at Boston State Hospital from 1967 to 1973, when he moved to McLean.

Kathleen Cole died in 1992. Dr. Cole married Bonnie Donham, a psychiatric social worker at McLean, in 1993.

Psychiatrist Joshua Cole of York, Maine, at first decided against psychiatry until he saw through his father that “it’s not about the doctor; it’s trying to help people have a better life.’’

“My father was blessed with a face and demeanor unlike the traditional psychiatrist, where people would have to fear that he could read their mind,’’ he said. “Dad taught me the real enjoyment of this is helping people.’’

In addition to his wife and son, Dr. Cole leaves another son, Jonathan of Cambridge; two stepdaughters, Rebecca Donham of Holliston and Katherine Donham of Marlboro, N.Y.; a stepson, Jeremy Donham of Attleboro; one grandson; and three step-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Sept. 13 at 1 p.m. at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge.

Correction: Because of incomplete or incorrect information provided to the Globe, the obituary on Dr. Jonathan Cole on Sunday neglected to mention that he was the superintendent of Boston State Hospital from 1967 to 1973. In addition, the maiden name of Dr. Cole’s mother, Anna (Steckel) Cole, was misspelled. Also, the obituary did not fully describe Dr. Cole’s findings on a possible link between Prozac and suicide. While the number of Prozac users who committed suicide was relatively small, he urged manufacturers and federal regulators to take the matter more seriously.