Overview Identifying and diagnosing mental health conditions in children and adolescents is one of the toughest jobs in health care. Sometimes symptoms overlap with other conditions. Changed or disruptive behavior could signal a disorder—or a typical developmental stage. Younger children may not have the words to express their thoughts or feelings. Teens may not want to communicate at all. All too often, schools, courts, community health care providers, and other agencies may not have the resources to provide an appropriate evaluation.

The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program at Stony Brook Children's has built an international reputation based on meeting these needs. We provide expert assessment of childhood and adolescent mental illness—in many cases, second opinions—to patients from as far away as California and South America.

Stony Brook also provides the full spectrum of psychiatric and behavioral services—inpatient treatment, outpatient care, medical and behavioral management, and school programs—to address the wide range of mental health conditions occurring in children today.

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Contact Us

Inpatient Care Stony Brook Children's
Children's Services 12N Hospital
Stony Brook, New York 11794

For physicians seeking information on admissions, call: (631) 444-7547 or (631) 444-1251

Outpatient Diagnostic Clinic Stony Brook Children's
South Campus-Putnam Hall
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday
For appointments, call (631) 632-3096
For information on clinical services and research, call (631) 632-8850

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Our Team Gabrielle A. Carlson, MD, Division Chief
Deborah Weisbrot, MD, Outpatient Department Director
Judith Crowell, MD, Fellowship Training Director
David Margulies, MD, Medical Director 12N
Richard Mattison, MD, School Consultation Director
Vicky (Erla-Victoria) Rundberg-Rivera, MD, School Consultant

Other key members of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry faculty team include: Sheldon Weintraub, PhD, Assistant Professor, Clinical Director
Joyce Sprafkin, PhD, Associate Professor, Outpatient Department Clinical Child Psychologist
Joseph Blader, PhD; Research Assistant Professor
Michael Greenberg, LCSW, Social Worker

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Services Stony Brook's renowned Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Services provides three major services: outpatient evaluation and treatment of children with psychiatric disorders; inpatient care at the only academic medical center on Long Island to provide inpatient child and adolescent psychiatry services; and consultation to schools that serve children with severe emotional disability.

In-Depth Evaluation and Assessment. The cornerstone of the Stony Brook program, our outpatient evaluations often are performed as second opinions for schools seeking detailed reports that will help the child obtain the appropriate school services. They sometimes are needed to advise in legal matters. And always, these evaluations and assessment help educate parents, guardians, and the child on the presence, nature, and treatment of their condition. A routine evaluation begins with obtaining standardized ratings from parent and teacher, copies of past evaluations and hospital records if relevant, and an interview with the parent/caretaker and child. A detailed evaluation also includes a laboratory assessment of attention and impulsivity as well as a classroom observation.

Inpatient Care. For children ages five through 12 with serious psychiatric disorders, we can provide 24-hour inpatient services in our 10-bed, locked unit. Children receive a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation, medications if necessary, and appropriate therapeutic interventions, which may include behavior management programs and therapeutic recreation along with educational services through the BOCES program. A core component of treatment is parent training to reinforce inpatient treatment, better manage the child, and give parents a new set of coping skills. The inpatient team includes a psychiatrist, psychologist, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nursing assistants.

Consultation Liaison Service. This provides high quality, thorough and timely psychiatric consultations to pediatric patients throughout Stony Brook Children's. Led by Dr. David Margulies and staffed by psychiatrists on the faculty, the consultation service provides evaluation and assistance with the management of psychiatric disorders occurring in medically ill children throughout the hospital such as chronic pain, depression, acute stress reactions, procedural anxiety, and complex medical/psychiatric diagnoses. Assessment consists of talking to the families of children about their medical and psychiatric conditions as well as collaborating with the pediatric team involved in their care.

School Program. Unique to Long Island, the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) program provides school services while the child is hospitalized. BOCES teachers help students maintain and develop their educational potential during hospitalization, create a routine, and develop new coping skills. The program is available to both regular and special education students. The BOCES team works closely with the school to assess the child's performance and ease the transition back to school.

Outpatient Services. Many of Stony Brook's services are available on an outpatient basis, including assessment, follow-up care, parent training, case management, and therapeutic management. We phone discharged patients to maintain support and guidance during the transition from hospital to home. In addition, our staff is available for one-to-one therapy.

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Patient Resources Members of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division are actively involved in educating families and the community about psychiatric disorders and their management. We have worked with Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), Special Education Parents and Teachers Association (SEPTA), and other support and advocacy groups.

In addition, members of the Division continually reach out to community therapists, educators, and families by organizing educational programs on child and adolescent psychiatry topics such as bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, learning disorders and aggression, and many other areas.

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Research and Education As part of an academic medical center, Stony Brook's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division participates in the teaching of tomorrow's professionals, as well as researching psychiatric disorders and their treatment. 

Education The Division maintains an accredited two-year psychiatric fellowship with two fellows in each year. Our faculty also teaches residents and medical students from the Stony Brook School of Medicine and nurse trainees from the Stony Brook School of Nursing.

Research. Current and upcoming clinical trials include studies on ADD and aggression, bipolar disorder and pediatric epilepsy. The division also is involved in longitudinal and other studies examining a variety of important research questions.

Dr. Judith Crowell is the principal investigator of a longitudinal study that will investigate the role of family factors and acute and chronic trauma and stress, including racism, on the development of metabolic syndrome (precursors to adult onset diabetes and heart disease). Based at Judge Baker Children's Center, Harvard Medical School, the project received a 5-year NIA funded grant in June 2009. It will follow psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents from a local high school and newly recruited subjects from the African American and Black Caribbean population of Boston.

Dr. Gabrielle Carlson has been involved in two funded longitudinal studies. One project focuses on late teens and adults with a first episode of psychosis. The other study is following a community sample of preschool children to examine the effects of certain kinds of temperament in predicting future depressive disorder.

Dr. Deborah Weisbrot has been involved with the Stony Brook National Pediatric MS Center as their psychiatric consultant. In addition to in-depth clinical evaluations, there are ongoing studies of psychiatric aspects of pediatric multiple sclerosis. As an outgrowth of this research, Dr. Weisbrot has published one of the first papers describing psychiatric aspects of demyelinating disorders in children and adolescents.

Open Studies Two clinical studies of attention deficit disorder and aggression are available for children between the ages of 6 and 12. For more information, call Ashley Conway at (631)632-8317 or Jayne Schneider at (631)632-3091.

Bipolar disorder is the focus of a clinical study for children and adolescents between the ages of 10 to 17. For more information, call Greg Carlson at (631) 632-8828.

Dr. Deborah Weisbrot is studying the psychiatric aspects of pediatric epilepsy in two soon-to-launch clinical studies. The first study is for adolescents with epilepsy, ages 12 to 18. The second study is for children and adolescents with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures, ages 8 to 17. For more information, call Dr.Weisbrot at (631) 632-8840.

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Advances and Recognitions Members of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry staff have been recipients of numerous awards and recognitions over the years, including:

Dr. Gabrielle Carlson and Dr. Deborah Weisbrot have been cited multiple times on Castle Connelly's list of "New York's Best Doctors."

Dr. Richard Mattison recently won the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's Berman Award for outstanding research on children with learning disabilities.

Dr. Carlson recently won a research award from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for her work on bipolar disorder in children and adolescents, and a clinical recognition award from the New York Council on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

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Definitions Attention deficit disorder - A syndrome characterized by a pattern of short attention span, impulsiveness, and sometimes hyperactivity.

Bipolar disorder - A mood disorder characterized by episodes of energetic manic "highs" and depressive "lows".

Epilepsy - A condition characterized by recurrent seizures or disruptions in the brain's normal electrical activity resulting in altered states of consciousness and sometimes convulsive movement.

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