Child Psychiatry

David Shaffer, F.R.C.P., Chief of Psychiatric Research
Hector Bird, M.D., Deputy Director, Research Psychiatrist
B. Timothy Walsh, M.D., Ruane Professor of Pediatric Psychopharmacology
Jennifer Havens, M.D., Deputy Director and Director of Clinical Services, Research Psychiatrist
Peter Jensen, M.D., Ruane Professor for the Implementation of Science in
Children’s Mental Health, Psychiatrist II
Laurence Greenhill, M.D., Director of Research Unit in Pediatric Psychopharmacology,
Research Psychiatrist II
Bradley Peterson, M.D., Psychiatrist II, Director of Pediatric Neuropsychiatry
Clarice J. Kestenbaum, M.D., Training Director, Research Psychiatrist
Ian A. Canino, M.D., Deputy Director of Training, Director of Community Child Psychiatry
Mark Davies, M.P.H., Research Scientist IV
Jane Fried, M.D., Medical Specialist II
Madelyn Gould, Ph.D., Research Scientist VI
Kimberly Hoagwood, Ph.D., Research Scientist
Christina Hoven, Dr.P.H., Research Scientist V
Owen Lewis, M.D., Research Psychiatrist II
Heino Meyer-Bahlburg, Ph.D., Research Scientist VI
Suzanne Salzinger, Ph.D., Research Scientist V
Angela Seracini, Ph.D., Director of DBD Clinic
Jonathan Slater, M.D., Director of Pediatric Liaison Services, Psychiatrist II
Bruce Waslick, M.D., Director of Children’s Day Unit, Psychiatrist II
Gail Wasserman, Ph.D., Research Scientist VI
Agnes Whitaker, M.D., Psychiatrist II



Honors and Elections
• Hector Bird received the Hulse Award from the New York Council of Child Psychiatry
• Laurie Flynn received NAMI’s Distinguished Service Award
• Larry Greenhill received the Elaine Schlosser Lewis Award for Research on ADHD
• Peter Jensen voted president-elect of the ISRCAP
• Lisa Kotler received the Beatrix A. Hamburg Award from the AACAP
• Lisa Kotler elected to the Executive Council of the New York County District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association
• Katharine Loeb received Academy for Eating Disorders Travel Fellowship
• Aykut Ozden received AACAP Pfizer Travel Grant for 2001
• Aromin Romulo received Presidential Scholars Award from AACAP
• Daniel Schechter received AACAP Pfizer Travel Grant for 2001


Research Activities
The Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit
In July 2001, Dr. Bradley Peterson was appointed to direct the Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit and to establish a Pediatric Imaging Laboratory in Child Psychiatry. The scope of the unit includes neuroimaging and clinical studies of autism and the pervasive developmental disorders, Tourette Syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and ADHD. More than fifteen peer-reviewed, data-based publications have come from the Dr. Peterson’s laboratory, and several major grants have been submitted for review. Dr. Ravi Bansal, an electrical engineer and an expert in MRI signal processing, recently joined the imaging laboratory.

Programs in the Carmel Hill Center for Early Diagnosis and Treatment
These programs have been established with support from the Carmel Hill Foundation to support the early identification of mental illness in children and teens. The center directors are Dr. David Shaffer and Laurie Flynn.

1. The Columbia TeenScreen® Program is directed by Leslie McGuire, M.S.W. This school-based screening program is now active in forty-five sites in nineteen states and Guam. It provides technical assistance, training, manuals, and brochures.

2. The Unit for the Promotion of Mental Health in Juvenile Justice has been established to promote routine mental health assessments among juvenile offenders. Projects have been established in Alabama, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Wyoming, and Washington State and have been published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

3. The Mental Health Policy and Legislation Program is directed by Karen Miller, who is based at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Washington, D.C. The program organized a special congressional seminar at Columbia University for select staff of key senators and representatives.

4. The Parent Partner Program is directed by Kathleen Greenberg, M.A., in the Pediatric Psychiatry clinics at Babies Hospital. This program is intended to enhance parent knowledge about the underlying problems and treatment of their children. It is hoped that this will in turn improve compliance and create a core of informed parent advocates for the extension of diagnostic and treatment programs.

The Center for the Advancement of Children’s Mental Health
The Center is directed by Peter Jensen, M.D., to promote the dissemination of research findings to “real world” settings. Current projects include: assisting state–employed child psychiatrists to implement evidence-based medication practices for severely aggressive child inpatients; providing technical assistance to New York City school-based mental health clinics to use proven treatments for children at risk for mental health problems; and testing the impact and effectiveness of training school social workers and counselors in identifying youth at risk for suicide and depression.

Treatment Research
Most treatment research is based either in the Research Unit for Pediatric Psychopharmacology (Director, Larry Greenhill, M.D.) or the Child Psychiatry Intervention Research Center (Directors, David Shaffer, M.D., Bruce Waslick, M.D., Myrna Weissman, Ph.D., Larry Greenhill, M.D., and Mark Davies, M.P.H.)

Dr. Greenhill’s current projects include a study of treatment for children of preschool age with ADHD (NIMH), a follow-up study of children with ADHD treated in different ways (NIMH), a biological study of suicidal adolescents (BSSA), and a newly awarded grant to study the treatment of suicidal adolescents (TASA). He is also principal investigator on several pediatric psychopharmacology trials (Concerta, Metadate-CD, Ampakine, Noven Methypatch, Somerset Selegiline patch, Eli Lily’s Atomoxetine, Wyeth Ayert’s Venlafaxine, Shire’s Adderall XR, and Cephalon’s Modafinal) and worked as the program chair of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Studies being conducted in the IRC under Dr. Waslick’s direction include: 1) the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS) to evaluate the relative efficacy of antidepressant medication, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), combined medication and CBT, and a pill placebo (NIMH); and 2) the Child and Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study (CAMS), a controlled clinical trial comparing SSRI medication, CBT, and combination medication/CBT for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders (NIMH).

Adolescent Suicide
Dr. Madelyn Gould has been funded for four new research projects on youth suicide: 1) a study to evaluate the iatrogenic risk of suicide screening programs (NIMH), i.e., whether asking a youngster about suicidal thoughts and behavior triggers subsequent suicidal ideation and behavior; 2) a study of crisis hot lines (SAMHSA); 3) “The Role of the Media in Initiating Teenage Suicide Media Clusters,” a content analysis of newspaper stories, trying to identify the specific elements of the stories that contribute to imitation (AFSP); and 4) a study of the impact of a student’s suicide on fellow students (NIMH). In addition, Dr. Gould is a co-founding member of the New York State Suicide Prevention Council, a public/private collaboration to facilitate the development of a suicide-prevention strategy in New York State. She assisted in the development of recommendations for the media on reporting on suicide, in conjunction with the Surgeon General’s office and media faculty at the Annenberg School of Public Policy.

Training Programs
The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training Program, under the leadership of
Clarice Kestenbaum, M.D., director, and Ian Canino, M.D., deputy director, trains graduate psychiatrists pursuing a career in administrative, clinical, academic, research, or hospital-based child psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Rockland Children’s Psychiatric Center, and the Queens Children’s Psychiatric Center. The training faculty received ACGME accreditation for five more years (top honors).

The training program’s clinical rotations now include community sites in schools for the behaviorally disturbed and an active rotation on pervasive developmental disorders. Medical-student education is now being directed by Seth McGowan, M.D. The training program has added Ellen Landau, a family therapist, to its teaching staff.

Established in 1988, “CARING at Columbia,” a not-for-profit organization continues to expand its preventive programs in our community.

2002–2003 First-Year Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residents
Joseph M. Bargellini, M.D.
Amir Levine, M.D.
Alan S. Liu, M.D.
Pamela K. Maskara, M.D.
Ana E. Rojas, M.D.
Diane Wagner, M.D.

2002–2003 Second-Year Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residents
Alicia Bartley-Heinsen, M.D.
Lisa Cullins, M.D.
Maria Gazzola, M.D.
Carlos Guzman, M.D.
Avram Mack, M.D.
Lorraine Marshall, M.D.
William Olcott, M.D.
William Wu, M.D.

Clinical Services
Pediatric Psychiatry Service at the Children’s Hospital of New York Presbyterian
In 2001, the service generated almost twenty-six thousand outpatient visits and twelve hundred consultations to inpatients at Children’s Hospital, providing mental health evaluation and treatment to approximately twenty-four hundred children and adolescents. With the expansion and reorganization of the Crisis Service, we maintained the trend begun in 2000 in the reduction of inpatient hospitalization of children presenting in psychiatric emergency, with only 13 percent of children under sixteen admitted. We established a new outpatient specialty clinic for the care of medically ill children with mental health problems. We received a grant from the New York State Office of Mental Health for the establishment of a home-based crisis-intervention program. We collaborated with the Center for Community Health and Education at the Mailman School of Public Health in the integration of psychological and psychiatric services in the School-Based Health Clinics. We received approval from the New York State Office of Mental Health for the integration of mental health services into the ACNC primary care clinics, to begin in the fall of 2002.