Our Services

Director: Carmen Lopez-Arvizu, MD

About

We provide specialized psychiatric care for children and adolescents – with or without neurodevelopmental disorders. Our team applies psychiatric expertise within a developmental framework to promote emotional and behavioral well-being, regardless of the complexity of their developmental profiles. 

Who We Serve

We serve children and adolescents under 18 with challenges in development, emotion, thinking, and behavior. Our approach is person- and family-centered, offering diagnostic clarity and treatment recommendations. 

Symptoms Treated

We address concerns including:

• Mood and anxiety disorders
• Attention and impulse control issues
• Sleep disturbances
• Emotional dysregulation and safety issues, especially when they occur with neurodevelopmental conditions like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disability (ID), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Treatment Approaches

Our interdisciplinary team of experienced professionals in child and adolescent psychiatry, psychiatric social work, psychology, and nursing provide patient- and family-centered care that is developmentally informed, culturally responsive, and grounded in evidence-based practices—empowering children, adolescents, and their families to thrive across clinical, educational, and community settings.

Research

We contribute to research focused on improving psychiatric care for children with developmental disabilities, including studies on safe psychopharmacology, suicide prevention, behavioral interventions, and integrated care models.

What to Expect

Families receive a comprehensive evaluation tailored to the child’s needs. Treatment plans are individualized and may include ongoing psychiatric care, therapy, and coordination with schools and other providers to promote resilience and long-term well-being.

Director: Jay Salpekar, MD, FANPA

Associate Director: Aaron J. Hauptman, MD 

About

The Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Service is dedicated to the care of children and their families related to emotional, behavioral, and cognitive aspects of injuries to the brain. We provide consultative, diagnostic, and treatment services related to conditions such as epilepsy, cerebral palsy, neuroinflammatory disorders such as encephalitis, and genetic conditions such as Down syndrome, Phelan-McDermid syndrome, and others. Within our service there are a number of subspecialty clinical programs, including the General Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Clinic, the Neuropsychiatry in Epilepsy Clinic, and the combined Neuropsychiatry and Palliative Care clinic. 

Who We Serve

We serve patients under the age of 18 and their families. Our patients have a broad range of neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions, which may interact in complex ways to cause significant cognitive, emotional, and behavioral symptoms.  Our focus is working with children and their families together as we use a range of collaborative interventions to address their symptoms. We address problems that exist in the space between neurology and psychiatry. 

Symptoms Treated

Our team focuses on the neuropsychiatric symptoms that are often core parts of neurological disorders. These can include attention, executive, memory, and other neurocognitive symptoms; psychiatric syndromes such as depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive symptoms; behavioral symptoms such as aggression, agitation, and self-injury; and many others. 

Treatment Approaches

Our strongest tool is in-depth evaluation and accurate assessment of complex neuropsychiatric syndromes. Our team is expert at the intersection of neurology, psychiatry, and developmental medicine. We utilize a range of clinical assessment strategies, and collaborate with a broad array of colleagues, such as neuropsychologists, behavioral specialists, neurological subspecialists, neurosurgeons, endocrinologists, palliative care providers, social workers, and others to provide integrated and holistic care. We will provide pharmacotherapeutic services, supportive psychotherapeutic interventions, and collaborate closely with other providers in behavioral and psychotherapeutic interventions.

Research

Members of our team are involved in research into many specific neuropsychiatric disorders, including epilepsy and anxiety, ADHD, neuroinflammatory disorders, and pediatric movement disorders. We also run clinical trials for therapeutics that address psychiatric symptoms associated with neurologic diseases. 

What to Expect

Our assessments are done by specialists in pediatric neuropsychiatry who have trained in a variety of backgrounds.  Assessments are performed in-person, are about 2 hours long, and done by attending physicians, specialists in training, and students. The evaluations involve an in-depth conversation about child and family history, review of medical records, and neurological examinations, when appropriate. Please note, we do not provide neuropsychological testing but will collaborate with neuropsychologists closely to care for our patients. Follow-up appointments are generally 30-45 minutes, and we typically will ask that patients return periodically for in-person follow-up. 

Co-Directors: Marco A. Grados, MD, MPH and Joseph F. McGuire, MD

About one in five children experience tics at some point. For most children, the tics do not require additional treatment and will disappear on their own. However, for those children with tics that severely impact their lives, treatment is needed. Tic disorders are more common in males than in females.

In addition to tics, about 85 percent of Tourette syndrome patients have at least one coexisting neuropsychological condition, the most common being attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, depression, disruptive behaviors and learning difficulties.

Our program provides medical evaluations and the most recent treatment options designed to improve overall health and quality of life for patients, with a focus on OCD, Tourette’s Disorder and other tic disorders, and related conditions such as trichotillomania and misophonia. We offer an interdisciplinary patient care from the leading experts in the fields of pediatric and adult neurology, psychiatry and neurophysiology. 

Director: Souraya Torbey, MD

Medical psychiatry is a subspecialty in the field of psychiatry that focuses on the connection between mental and physical disorders. It includes psychiatric treatment for patients, as well as consultation to psychiatrists and non-psychiatrist healthcare providers that help them understand patients'  reactions to illness. Providers in medical psychiatry can recommend psychological care based on a patients' reaction.

The medical psychiatry team at Kennedy Krieger offers a comprehensive approach to the emotional, cognitive and behavioral needs of the patient. It is part of the interdisciplinary care provided to young people with functional somatic symptoms and disorders, chronic pain and general medical conditions not directly affecting the brain such as diabetes mellitus with comorbid emotional and behavioral challenges.

Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)

Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), formerly known as conversion disorder, is a common condition characterized by neurological symptoms that are not caused by an underlying neurological injury or medical condition but by dysfunctions in the normal functioning of the body.

In FND, the brain "misfires" and sends incorrect signals to the body. The exact cause of FND is not fully understood, although research indicates that it involves brain areas that respond to threats and emergencies. Symptoms of FND may appear suddenly, without an obvious trigger, or following a stressful event or emotional or physical trauma.

Individuals with this disorder experience physical and sensory issues such as paralysis, numbness, or seizures. It is important to note that children with FND are not faking their symptoms; rather, the symptoms are a reflex response that can be alleviated with appropriate treatment. The problems are not caused by underlying medical conditions but by issues in the normal functioning of the body. These symptoms can significantly impact important aspects of a child's life, such as school performance and family life.

Learn More

Directors: Joseph McGuire, PhD (Psychology) and Patricia Shepley, MSW, LSCW-C (Social Work)

Our clinical psychologists and psychiatric social workers provide individual, family, and group psychotherapy. Services are coordinated with the psychiatry and nursing teams to provide comprehensive mental health care for each patient and family.

What to Expect:

Patients and families will complete a brief call with our Clinical Services Coordinators Team to gather initial information that will help get them connected with the appropriate therapeutic services. After determining the best program(s) to provide care, a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation will be scheduled with one of our clinicians. This evaluation focuses on understanding the specific challenges that led patients and families to seek care and identifies strength-based approaches—which will all serve to guide each patient’s and family’s therapeutic care plan.

Following this initial evaluation, patients and/or families will be matched with a therapist who will provide the type of therapy that fits their needs. While this is often the initial clinician who completed the evaluation, other therapists can also provide care based on the specific therapy that would be beneficial for patients and families.

Types of therapy offered:

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Comprehensive Behavior Therapy for Tics (CBIT)
• Chicago Parenting Program
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
• Exposure with Response Prevention (ERP)
• Family Therapy
• Motivational Interviewing (MI)
• Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT)
• Supportive Therapy

Groups:

• Social skills and condition specific groups
• Parenting groups
• Multi-family groups

We offer on-going training to our therapists to ensure that we have a full complement of therapies to provide to our patients and their families.

Therapy is provided both in-person and by telehealth. Patients who receive telehealth will be assessed for its effectiveness and may be asked to receive in-person services. Most groups are provided through telehealth.