Clinical and Research Program in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD
Chief: Joseph Biederman MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard University: http://massgeneral.org/pediatricpsych/home.html
Summary of Research
Founded just twenty-five years ago, the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Program is the largest research program in the Department of Psychiatry, and its researchers are among the most prolific and respected child psychiatrists and psychologists in the world. Under the leadership of renowned child psychiatrist and founder, Joseph Biederman, MD, the program has “changed the face of child psychiatry" through study of the characteristics and mechanisms of the most severe psychiatric illnesses that appear in children and young people.
Clinicians in the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Program care for more than 3,000 children and teens each year; many of whom have been followed into adulthood. The program boasts a rich and sophisticated research infrastructure of expert administrative, recruitment and assessment, and data management and analysis teams. Its research program is prolific, yielding more than 500 peer-reviewed articles published in major medical journals.
The Program’s scientific contributions and ongoing projects include:
- Establishing the hereditary aspect of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Documenting the continuity of ADHD from childhood into adulthood
- Conducting the largest study to date of ADHD in girls
- Establishing maternal smoking during pregnancy as a risk factor for ADHD
- Identifying candidate genes for ADHD
- Conducting novel imaging studies using PET, SPECT, morphometric, functional, and spectroscopy MRI to identify brain structures implicated in psychiatric illness in youth
- Documenting that aggressive treatment of ADHD in childhood prevents the emergence of substance use disorders in adolescence
- Characterizing pediatric bipolar disorder as a unique developmental form of the disorder
- Demonstrating that ADHD is a risk factor for major depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders
- Confirming ADHD and bipolar disorder as risk factors for substance use disorders
- Linking the temperamental trait of behavioral disinhibition in toddlers as a risk factor for later disruptive and mood disorders
- Developing systematic programs for the evaluation of common and alternative treatments for ADHD, childhood depression and pediatric bipolar disorder
For information on pediatric and adult studies, call our hotline at: 617-724-ADHD. For information on pediatric bipolar disorder studies, call our hotline at: 617-724-4MGH
Contact information
For information on pediatric and adult studies, call our hotline at: 617-724-ADHD. For information on pediatric bipolar disorder studies, call our hotline at: 617-724-4MGH
