Lawrence Scahill, MSN, Ph.D.

Professor of Nursing & Child Psychiatry, Yale University School of Nursing and Child Study Center
Director of the Research Unit on Pediatric Psychopharmacology

Research Interests

Dr. Scahill is Professor of Nursing and Child Psychiatry at Yale. For the past 9 years, he has been the Director of the Research Unit on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) at Yale. Yale is one of 3 centers in the RUPP Autism Network. The aim of this mulitsite network is to evaluate psychopharmacological and behavioral interventions in children with adolescents with autism and related developmental disorders.

In addition to his work in autism, Dr. Scahill is also involved in psychopharmacological and behavioral interventions for children and adults with Tourette syndrome. He serves on the Medical Advisory Board of the Tourette Syndrome Association and is a principal investigator on two multisite studies evaluating the efficacy of a behavioral intervention for tics in children and adults with Tourette syndrome.

Dr. Scahill is an active clinician specializing in the care of children with Tourette syndrome and children with autism. The author of over 130 journal articles and numerous book chapters, Dr. Scahill is also a teacher in the graduate School of Nursing at Yale.

Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology

Three-site trial designed to examine the combined effects of medication and behavioral intervention in children with autism accompanied by tantrums, aggression and self-injury. This study will examine whether a medication (risperidone with parent management training) will be superior to medication alone for improving compliance and adaptive functioning in children with autism or pervasive developmental disorder. We shoewed in an earlier study that risperidone was effective for reducing tantrums, aggression and self-injury in children with autism. However, gains in every day living activities were only modest even after 6 months of successful treatment. The current study will bring medication and behavioral intervention together for the first time in children with autism. We hope to show that when the medication is successful in reducing serious behavioral problems it will set the stage for the parent training to promote gains in adaptive functioning.

Curriculum Vitae

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Recent Publications

• Scahill, L., Sukhodolsky, D., Bearss, K., Findley, D., Hamrin, V., Rains, A. (2006). A Randomized Trial of Parent Management Training in Children with Tic Disorders and Disruptive Behavior. Journal of Child Neurology, 21:650-656
• Scahill, L., McDougle, C.J., Williams, S.K., Dimitropoulos, A., Aman, M.G., McCracken, J.T., Tireney, E., Arnold, L.E., Cronin, P., Grados, M., Ghuman, J., Koenig, K., Langworthy-Lam, K., McGough, J., Posey, D.J., Ritz, L., Swiezy, N., Vitiello, B. (2006). The Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scales modified for pervasive developmental disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 45(9):1114-23
• Williams, S.K., Scahill, L., Vitiellio, B., Aman, M.G., Arnold, L.E., McDougle, C. J., McCracken, J.T., Tierney, E., Ritz, L., Posey, D.J., Swiezy, N.B., Hollway, J., Cronin, P., Ghuman, J., Wheeler, C., Cicchetti, D., Sparrow, S. (2006). Risperidone and Adaptive Behavior in Children with Autism. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 45(4): 431-9
• Scahill, L., Williams, S., Schwab-Stone, M., Applegate, J., Leckman, J.F. (2006). Disruptive behavior problems in a community sample of children with tic disorders. Advances in Neurology, 99:184-190.
• Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) Autism Network (2005). Randomized, controlled, crossover trial of methylphenidate in pervasive developmental disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 62:1266-74.
• Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP)Autism Network (2005). Risperidone treatment of autistic disorder: longer term benefits and blinded discontinuation after six months. Amer Journal of Psychiatry, 162:1361-1369.
• Bloch MH. Peterson BS. Scahill L. Otka J. Katsovich L. Zhang H. Leckman JF. (2006) Adulthood outcome of tic and obsessive-compulsive symptom severity in children with Tourette syndrome. Archives Pediatrics Adolesc Medicine. 160(1):65-9, 2006 Jan.
• McDougle, C.J., Scahill, L., Aman, M.G., McCracken, J.T., Tierney, E., Davies, M., Arnold, L.E., Posey, P.J., Martin, A., Ghuman, J.K., Shah, B., Chuang, S.Z., Swiezy, N.B., Gonzalez, N.M., Hollway, J., Koenig, K., McGough, J., Ritz, L., Vitiello, B. (2005) Risperidone for the Core Symptom Domains of Autism: Results from the RUPP Autism Network Study. Amer Journal of Psychiatry, 162:1142-1148
• Martin, A., Scahill, L., Anderson, G.M., Aman, M., Arnold, L.E., McCracken, J., McDougle, C.M., Tierney, E., Chuang, S., Vitiello, B.,and the Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology Autism Network (2004) Weight and Leptin Changes among Risperidone-Treated Youths with Autism: Six-Month Prospective Data. American Journal of Psychiatry, 161(6):1125-27.
• Sukhodolsky, D., Scahill, L., Zhang, H., Peterson, B.S., King, R.A., Lombroso, P.J., Katsovich L., Findley, D. & Leckman, J.F. (2003). Disruptive behavior in children with Tourette’s syndrome: Association of ADHD comorbidity, tic severity, and functional impairment. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 42:98-105.
• Scahill, L., Leckman, J.F., Schultz, R.T., Katsovich, L., & Peterson, B.S. (2003) A placebo-controlled trial of risperidone in Tourette syndrome. Neurology. 60:1130-1135
• Scahill, L., Kano, Y., King, R.A., Carlson, A., Peller, A., LeBrun, U., Rosario-Campos, M.C., Leckman, J.F. (2003). Influence of age and tic disorders on obsessive-compulsive disorder in a pediatric sample. J Child Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 13(S 1): 7-18.
• Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology Autism Network (2002). Risperidone in children with autism for serious behavioral problems. New England Journal of Medicine, 347(5): 314-321.

Contact

Campus Address
Child Study Center
230 South Frontage Road
P.O. Box 207900
New Haven, CT 06520-7900

E-mail
lawrence.scahill@yale.edu

Office Phone
203-785-2511

Fax
203-737-5104