Introduction

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is a lifelong illness that affects between 5–9 percent of children and adolescents and 1–3 percent of adults. The problems associated with ADHD can affect every aspect of an individual's life and functioning. In children, it typically causes difficulties in academic performance and classroom behavior, and often results in problematic social relationships with peers and adults. Adolescents with ADHD frequently endure social isolation, academic failure and family conflict. In adults, ADHD can negatively affect job performance and marriage. Due to frequent failure experiences, individuals with ADHD often experience low self-esteem and other emotional problems.

The overarching mission of the Institute is to:

• Advance our knowledge and understanding regarding the nature of and interventions for ADHD;
  
  
• Provide state-of-the-art, empirically-based clinical care to individuals with ADHD; and
  
  
• Train psychologists, psychiatrists and other professionals who care for individuals with ADHD in state-of-the-art evaluation, diagnostic and treatment procedures.

The Institute emphasizes the integration of its research, clinical and training components. We focus on the development and investigation of new interventions for ADHD, both pharmacological and psychosocial. Efficacious treatments are incorporated into our clinical services and our training and teaching curricula. The treatments provided in our ADHD Service are continually evaluated to ensure their clinical effectiveness with individual patients, and to generate heuristic information that leads to testable hypotheses. Under the director, Howard Abikoff, Ph.D., Pevaroff Cohn Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Institute focuses on ADHD throughout the lifespan, and on common co-morbid conditions, such as learning disabilities, conduct problems and depression.

For more information, contact ADHD@aboutourkids.org.

ADHD Service of New York

This clinical service, under the direction of Steven Kurtz, Ph.D., focuses on the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with ADHD. Assessment consists of structured interviews of psychiatric symptoms and role functioning, historical and behavioral rating scale information supplied by parents and adolescents, and rating scales and telephone interviews completed by teachers. Treatment services include combinations of pharmacotherapy and psychosocial treatments, with an emphasis on behavioral approaches, and organizational skills training at home and at school. The service provides parent training, school consultation, and other research-informed treatments.

Child Study Center Long Island Campus

This is a companion site for the center's ADHD Service of New York. Karen Fleiss, Psy.D. is the Clinical Coordinator for this service, which carries out several NIMH funded treatment studies, including the Follow-Up of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA). In addition, as a branch of the Child Study Center it addresses the needs of parents and children by offering school consultation, diagnostic evaluations, testing, medication management, and research-driven clinical services including parent training.

NYU Summer Program for Kids

More than 50 children attended the 2007 NYU Summer Program for Kids, the first summer program in the New York metropolitan area designed to make summer a fun, productive and successful experience for children with ADHD. It is an eight-week, all-day therapeutic clinical program based on research effectiveness. The daily schedule includes a full variety of sports, academic and computer activities, and arts and crafts, and social skills training designed to improve social behavior. Learn more....