Adelaide Robb, MD, Named New Chief of the Division of Psychology and Behavioral Health
Washington, DC – Children’s National Health System recently tapped Adelaide Robb, MD, as Chief of the Division of Psychology and Behavioral Health, a newly formed and expanded division that will complement the Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine led by Paramjit Joshi, MD.
Dr. Robb is currently a tenured Professor of Psychiatry and of Pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and Director of Psychiatry Research at the Center for Translation Science within Children’s National. Dr. Robb’s research focus is in psychopharmacology.
“Dr. Robb has a national reputation as a clinical trialist for novel therapies for children with attention deficit, mood, and behavioral manifestations of autism spectrum disorders,” says Roger J. Packer, MD, Senior Vice President, Center for Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine. “Her new Division and expanded responsibilities will allow Children’s National to focus even more on the investigations of new means to treat these disorders and expand our clinical research program in behavioral health. It is only with this type of effort that we can improve outcomes for children with mental health challenges.”
As Division Chief of Psychology and Behavioral Health, Dr. Robb will be responsible for the entire psychology division. The division currently provides psychology consultations to many medical programs within Children’s National such as Oncology, Gastroenterology, Diabetes, and other chronic conditions.
“One of my big goals is to expand our assistance into some of the other medical clinics where they too may benefit from having psychological intervention and consultation with kids with other chronic medical problems,” says Dr. Robb.
The psychology team is an important part of the care team at Children’s National because, as Dr. Robb says, stress can often make a child’s medical problems worse, and children who don’t do well emotionally may return to the hospital with medical problems.
Dr. Robb has been on the medical staff at Children’s National since 1996 after completing her fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry with Children’s National and George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She received her MD from Johns Hopkins University and has trained at Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute of Mental Health.
Children’s National has one of the nation’s largest combined neuroscience and behavioral medicine departments devoted to children and adolescents. In 2013, Children’s National provided mental health care to approximately 2,000 emergency psychiatric patients, evaluated more than 1,800 new outpatients, and conducted more than 16,000 follow-up patient visits.
In addition to her positions at Children’s National, Dr. Robb is chair of the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Initiative and co-chair of the Committee on Research at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She also serves as the psychiatric liaison to the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Drugs.
Dr. Robb’s appointment was effective July 1, 2014.
