Dr. Schatzberg was born in New York City in 1944 and received his MD from New York University in 1968. He did his psychiatric residency at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center (1969–1972) and was Chief Resident, Southard Clinic (1971–1972). He was also a Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. After serving in the United States Air Force, he joined the staff at McLean Hospital and the faculty of Harvard Medical School in 1974. At McLean Hospital, he held a number of important positions, including Service Chief, Interim Psychiatrist in Chief, Co-Director of the Affective Disorders Program (with Dr. J. Cole), and Director of the Depression Research Facility. In 1988, he became Clinical Director of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, but continued at McLean Hospital with his research program on the biology and treatment of depression. Since 1991, he has been the Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. He served as Chair of the Department (1991–2010). He now directs the Stanford Mood Disorders Center.
Dr. Schatzberg is a past president of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and he was also the Secretary-General of the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrtinology. In 2003, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (2008) and the Medical University of Vienna (2011).