A native of Athens, Greece, Dr. Lyketsos graduated from Northwestern University and Washington University Medical School in St. Louis.  He completed residency and Chief Residency in psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, as well as a fellowship in clinical epidemiology. He holds a certificate in the business of medicine from Johns Hopkins, where he also completed the Johns Hopkins Leadership Development Program. In 2008 he was named an Alafouzos Scholar in the Center for Innovative Medicine.

An active clinician, teacher, and researcher, Dr. Lyketsos was the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Neuropsychiatry Service, which he led for over a decade. He developed one of the largest and most successful academic neuropsychiatry programs in the USA with special expertise in dementia and traumatic brain injury. Prior to taking leadership of Johns Hopkins Bayview Psychiatry, he was co-director of the Johns Hopkins Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry. He has held a joint faculty appointment at the Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health since 1994.

As the Chair of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine Task Force on Subspecialization, Dr. Lyketsos was instrumental in the 2003 recognition by the American Board of Medical Specialties of a new psychiatric subspecialty “Psychosomatic Medicine.” This rapidly expanding subspecialty is focused on psychiatric aspects of complex medically ill, typically patients with chronic diseases where the psychiatric condition is affecting medical care and outcomes. His expertise in this area was critical to his leadership role in the Johns Hopkins Community Health Partnership (J-CHiP) supported by a major grant from the CMS Innovations Center to transform the way Johns Hopkins delivers population-based healthcare in its local community. He now leads efforts to integrate Behavioral Health services throughout the Johns Hopkins Medicine clinical enterprise. 

A world expert in the care and treatment of patients with Alzheimer’s and related dementias (AD), Dr. Lyketsos carried out pioneering work on the epidemiology and treatment of neuropsychiatric features of AD. His team is developing biomarkers to accelerate treatment development for AD while designing and implementing innovative clinical trials. He leads efforts to ensure the provision of state of the art Dementia Care for people with dementia in the community. Given his special expertise in the relationship between Traumatic Brain Injury and dementia, Dr. Lyketsos advises the NFL Benefits Office and serves on the NFL Players Association Mackey-White Health and Safety Committee.           

Dr. Lyketsos is the recipient of the American College of Psychiatrists’ 2018 Geriatric Research Award, the 2016 Jack Weinberg Award in Geriatric Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association, the 2012 Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, the 2006 William S. Proxmire Award for “extraordinary leadership in the fight against Alzheimer’s,” and the 2002 Research Award from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. A Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and member of the American College of Psychiatrists, he has authored/co-authored over 350 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, commentaries, as well as five books, including Systematic Psychiatric Evaluation and Psychiatric Aspects of Neurological Diseases (translated into Greek and Russian). Dr. Lyketsos is Deputy Editor of International Psychogeriatrics, and serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Psychiatry and Alzheimer’s and Dementia. 

Castle-Connolly has named Dr. Lyketsos as one of America’s Top Doctors every year since 2001.