Richard Zhang

Fellow Physician and Researcher in Asian and Asian American Studies

Richard Zhang is a fellow physician in child and adolescent psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. He completed his general psychiatry residency training at the University of Connecticut in June 2024. Throughout residency, he served as an affiliated faculty at the UConn Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, a position he continues to maintain. His interests include cultural psychiatry, transitional age youth health, and psychiatry’s intersections with humanities and the law. One example of his bridging AAASI with the medical community involved teaching an Asian American studies-themed elective and culturally informed care to UConn medical and dental students. He leads an ongoing multidisciplinary team that measured the benefits of such teaching in medical trainees and integrated the significant results into a manuscript for publication.

Dr. Zhang is also involved in national-level advocacy through the American Psychiatric Association as an APA/APAF Leadership Fellow. Recently, he served as Resident-Fellow Member Representative for APA Area 1 (New England and Eastern Canada) and 2023-2024 Chair of APA’s Assembly Committee of Area Resident-Fellow Members (ACORF). He oversaw significant growth in ACORF’s productivity and advocacy, co-authored ten policy-proposing Action Papers for national Assembly meetings, and remains involved as ACORF Mentor providing Assembly-related guidance to colleagues.

Education

2021 M.D., Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University

2020 M.A. in History of Science and Medicine, Yale University

2016 B.S. in Science with Minor in History, Pennsylvania State University

Recent Publications

Journal Articles:

Zhang, Richard. “The White-Collar Antisocial Personality.” Hektoen International 15, no. 1 (Winter 2023).
Zhang, Richard, Manny Lai, and Dajie Wang. “Psychologic Impacts on Diabetic Neuropathic Pain.” Current Pain and Headache Reports 26 (April 5, 2022): 423–27.
Zhang, Richard. “American Ginseng as an Herbal Emissary Influencing Qing-American Trade Relations.” Hektoen International 13, no. 1 (Winter 2021).
Zhang, Richard. “King of Flowers: Reinterpretation of Chinese Peonies in Early Modern Europe.” Journal of the Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science 3, no. 1 (March 9, 2021): 41–54.
Zhang, Richard. “ Fanny Halpern, a Psychiatric Go-between of 1930s Shanghai.” Hektoen International 12, no. 2 (Spring 2020).
Zhang, Richard. “A Tale of Two Tonics: Sino-Western Psychopharmaceutical Modernity in Shanghai, 1936.” Hektoen International 12, no. 2 (Spring 2020).

Book Reviews:

Zhang, Richard. “America’s Arab Refugees: Vulnerability and Health on the Margins.” Hektoen International 12, no. 1 (Winter 2020).

Book Chapters:

Baker, Cedric, and Richard Zhang. “Ginseng.” In Health Professional’s Guide to Dietary Supplements, 262–68. Chicago, IL: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2023.

Newspaper and Magazine Articles:

Yuen, Eunice, and Richard Zhang. “Health Impacts of Caffeine Overuse in Youth.” Psychology Today, June 11, 2024.
Assembly Committee of Area Residents and Fellows. “Assembly’s Resident-Fellow Members Move Ahead to Make a Difference.” Psychiatric News, February 26, 2024, Volume 59, Issue 3 edition.
Yuen, Eunice, and Richard Zhang. “Internet Gaming Addiction in Asian American Youth.” Psychology Today, July 17, 2023.
Rowlandson, Shae, and Richard Zhang. “People with Bipolar Disorder Experience a Seasonal Pattern.” Hartford Courant, June 21, 2023, sec. Opinion.
Zhang, Richard. “COVID-19 Has Interrupted the American Sleep Schedule. Is That a Good Thing?” The Philadelphia Inquirer. April 22, 2020.

Presentations:

Kim, Eunice, Michelle Chen, and Richard Zhang. “Asian/Asian American Mental Health & Representation in Psychology & Psychiatry.” Panel presentation presented at the UConn AsACC x CHATogether, Storrs, CT, April 24, 2024.
Zhang, Yoyo, Richard Zhang, and Eunice Yuen. “Breaking the Silence of Teen Suicides: A Student-Run TEDx Salon in School-Based Community.” Poster presentation presented at the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture Conference, Toronto, Canada, April 12, 2024.
Zhang, Richard, and Trisha Pitter. “Evaluation of an Individual Learning Opportunity Utilizing an Asian American Studies-Themed Mental Health Workbook.” Presented at the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture Conference, Toronto, Canada, April 11, 2024.
Zhang, Richard, and Tremearne Hotz. “American Use and Regulation of Kratom.” Poster presentation presented at the Eleventh Annual CT-SAM Educational, Hartford, CT, March 14, 2024.
Zhang, Richard, Shae Rowlandson, Nadav Hart, and Luis Velez Figueroa. “Countertransference for Non-Psychiatry Physicians.” Teaching presentation presented at the Middlesex Health Family Medicine Residency: Behavioral Science Conference, Middletown, CT, February 14, 2024.
Yuen, Eunice, Richard Zhang, Elizabeth Li, and Abby Lu. “CHATogether.” Grand Rounds presentation presented at the UConn Health Psychiatry Grand Rounds, Farmington, CT, June 9, 2023.
Chen, Judy, Richard Zhang, and Andrew Winokur. “Difficult Designation: Oppositional Defiant Disorder Through a Dynamic Nominalist Lens.” Poster presentation presented at the American Psychiatric Association – 2023 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, May 20, 2023.
Zhang, Richard, and Judy Chen. “Difficult Designation: Oppositional Defiant Disorder Through a Dynamic Nominalist Lens.” Oral presentation presented at the Psychiatry Research Day, Farmington, CT, May 12, 2023.
Zhang, Richard, and Judy Chen. “Difficult Designation: Oppositional Defiant Disorder Through a Dynamic Nominalist Lens.” Oral presentation presented at the 2023 Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science Conference, Atlanta, GA, March 3, 2023.
Zhang, Richard, Jason Chang, and Rocio Chang. “Evaluation of an Individual Learning Opportunity Utilizing an Asian American Studies-Themed Mental Health Workbook.” Grand Rounds presentation at the UConn Health Psychiatry Grand Rounds, Farmington, CT, October 14, 2022.
Zhang, Richard, and Mario Fahed. “Marketing Medicine for the Mind: Mental Hygiene, Neurasthenia, and Patent Drugs in Mid-1930s Shanghai.” Poster presentation presented at the American Psychiatric Association – 2022 Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, May 22, 2022.
Zhang, Richard. “Problem Gambling Among Asian Americans.” Poster presentation presented at the Psychiatry Research Day, UConn Health, Farmington, CT, April 28, 2022.
Zhang, Richard. “The Emergence of Thorazine in an Era of Psycho-Biopower.” Oral presentation presented at the Psychiatry Research Day, UConn Health, Farmington, CT, April 28, 2022.
Zhang, Richard. “The Emergence of Thorazine in an Era of Psycho-Biopower.” Oral presentation presented at the New England Historical Association – Spring 2022 Meeting, Lowell, MA, April 23, 2022.
Zhang, Richard. “The Emergence of Thorazine in an Era of Psycho-Biopower.” Presented at the 2022 Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science Conference, Atlanta, GA, March 10, 2022.
Zhang, Richard. “Problem Gambling Among Asian Americans.” Presented at the Ninth Annual Connecticut ASAM Educational Contest, Hartford, CT, February 24, 2022.
Zhou, Xun, and Richard Zhang. “East Asia Workshop Series: The People’s Health.” Webinar presented at the UConn Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, Storrs, CT, November 19, 2021.
Seaton, Rebekah, Gigi Belen, Roszena Haskins, Jeffrey Ambroise, Natalie Gavalis, Yanelly Olivera, Melane Thomas, Derek Williams, and Richard Zhang. “Keeping Our Focus on Mental Health & Wellness.” Webinar presented at the Community of Concern & West Hartford Public Schools, West Hartford, CT, September 8, 2021.
Zhang, Richard. “A Profitable Panacea: American Ginseng as a Culturally-Imbued Actor Influencing Qing-American Trade Relations.” Oral presentation presented at the 2021 Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science Conference, Atlanta, GA, March 12, 2021.
Zhang, Richard. “King of Flowers: Reinterpretation of Chinese Peonies in Early Modern Europe.” Oral presentation presented at the 2020 Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science Conference, New Orleans, LA, March 6, 2020.
Zhang, Richard, and Benjamin Larson. “Post-Stroke Recrudescence in the Setting of Tramadol Overuse: A Case Report.” Poster presentation presented at the 2019 PA-ACP Southeastern Region Abstract and Doctor’s Dilemma Competition, Philadelphia, PA, October 26, 2019.

Recent Awards

First Place Winner, PGY-1—PGY-3 Category, Ninth Annual Connecticut ASAM Educational Contest (February 2022):

Received first place among junior residents and a $500 prize at this Connecticut-wide contest for addiction medicine-related presentations, for a poster presentation, Problem Gambling Among Asian Americans.

First Place Winner, 2021 Stanley M. Kaplan Essay Contest (December 2021):

Received first place and a $500 prize in this annual national contest open to all US medical students who submit psychiatry-related essays, for a history of psychiatry paper, “Marketing Medicine for the Mind: Mental Hygiene, Neurasthenia, and Patent Drugs in Mid-1930s Shanghai.”

Organizational Psychiatry

Email	rzhang@uchc.edu