George Solomon, 69; Studied Mind’s Links to Health

Dr. George Solomon, one of the first scientists to offer now widely accepted connections between the mind and physical health, helping establish the field of psychoneuroimmunology, has died. He was 69.

Solomon, who taught psychiatry at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute from 1984 to 1995, died Oct. 7 in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke, UCLA officials said.

“Now, it is widely accepted that sleep is healing, emotional stress can be dangerous, exercise and relaxation are therapeutic and that psychological well-being may protect one from disease,” said the institute’s director, Dr. Peter Whybrow.

“[But] when Dr. Solomon began his work, the idea that a healthy mind might help fight cancer was largely dismissed by the medical establishment,” Whybrow said. “It took a man of unusual courage and vision to carry such an idea forward and accumulate the necessary scientific evidence that would silence the skeptics and establish this new field.”

Solomon, born in Freeport, N.Y., and educated at Stanford University, pursued evidence of mind-immunity connections throughout his adult life. Even after his retirement, he published a study showing that 1994 earthquake damage to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center in North Hills reduced the immunity of the hospital’s employees.

“This research shows that natural disasters . . . not only cause emotional distress but can also create negative physical effects,” the doctor told The Times in 1997, saying he got the idea for the study after the quake destroyed his office and caused him stress. “We are not built biologically for prolonged emotional distress.”

Topics of Solomon’s studies included the effects of stress, attitude and relationships on the inception and treatment of such potentially fatal illnesses as cancer and AIDS and more chronic ailments like arthritis and allergies.

“Positive coping,” or having a good attitude, he often said, “positively correlates with a variety of immune functions” and can increase the chance of recovery or improvement as well as preventing illness.

Solomon said one indication of a person’s “immune-competent personality” is the ability to say no to a friend’s request for a favor. Declining to help move furniture if you don’t feel well, he offered as an example in 1992, “reflects assertiveness and the ability to resist becoming a self-sacrificing martyr. It also demonstrates the capacity to monitor and take care of your own needs, psychologically and physically.”

Applying his studies of emotions or mental behavior to violence, Solomon testified as a forensic psychiatrist in several high-profile criminal cases. Among those was the murder trial of Dan White in the slaying of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk two decades ago. Defense attorneys conceded that White fired the fatal shots but called psychiatrists in an effort to prove that he was mentally ill when he did it.

Solomon described White as a “rigid and moralistic” person who had “chronic problems dealing with anger and aggression” and saw people “in black and white terms . . . with no shades of gray.” Asked if White was suitable for political office, Solomon said “frankly, no.”

The psychiatrist said White killed Moscone on an uncontrollable “primitive impulse” and then went to Milk’s office to shoot him because “he was sort of on an automatic pilot. . . . He was in an explosive rage.”

Solomon also consulted frequently with law enforcement officials to help profile and apprehend child molestation suspects.

He was co-author of the 1975 book “The Psychology of Strength” and author of last year’s “From Psyche to Soma and Back,” as well as more than 160 scientific articles and papers.

In addition to UCLA, Solomon taught and conducted research at UC San Francisco and Stanford. He also worked at the VA hospitals in Palo Alto and North Hills and served as director of medical education for the Fresno County Department of Health.

Solomon is survived by his wife, Susan, and two sons, Joshua and Jared.

Last year, UCLA established the George Solomon Chair in Psychobiology at the Neuropsychiatric Institute. Memorial donations may be made to the UCLA Foundation for that chair, c/o Director’s Office, Neuropsychiatric Institute, 760 Westwood Plaza, Room C7-463, Los Angeles, CA 90024.