Advances in Development and Psychopathology: Brain Research Foundation Symposium Series

The Institute for Juvenile Research/Children’s Brain Research Foundation International Symposium Series on Brain Development and Clinical Psychopathology has been developed by Patrick Tolan, Ph.D., and Bennett Leventhal, M.D., establishing an annual conference that draws together each year a select group of world-leading scientists to participate in a working meeting on a key topic of child psychopathology. Conference invitation and participation carries a stipend and an agreement to co-author a chapter with two other leading scientists in the area. This provides an unusual level of quality and incentive for the strongest book product. Going forward, each annual conference will produce one edited volume, focusing on a specific topical area in developmental psychopathology research and practice. Each volume focuses on addressing timely central issues in advancing knowledge and understanding of children’s mental health. For example, the first conference focuses on disruptive behavior disorders in children organized around 7 key questions. Each topic/question is spearheaded by three illustrious scientists, and the overall attending participants – who also constitute the authors for this first volume – are among the most renowned child mental health researchers and clinicians. In the coming years, the conference and subsequent book volumes will focus on such issues as role of schools in mental health, parenting as a key focus of prevention, variations in response to medication and other treatments of ADHD, the relation of varying forms of autism spectrum disorders, roots of depression in early childhood, role of trauma in child psychopathology, and best practices in promotion of mental health. Series co-editors, Patrick Tolan, Ph.D., and Bennett Leventhal, M.D., are senior researchers and professional leaders in the field of child mental health with substantial experience as authors and editors, including edited volumes like this proposed series.