CONTACT INFORMATION

University of Illinois at Chicago
Department of Psychiatry
Institute for Juvenile Research
1747 W. Roosevelt Road, (M/C 747)
Chicago, IL 60608

Office Phone: (312) 996-1077    E-mail: awest@psych.uic.edu

Assistant: 
Jackie Doxie, (312) 996-9438 jdoxie@psych.uic.edu

 

KEY PUBLICATIONS
  
West, A.E., Celio, C.I., Henry, D. & Pavuluri, M.N. (in press). Child Mania Rating Scale-Parent Version: A Valid Measure of Symptom Change Due to Pharmacotherapy. Journal of Affective Disorders.

West, A., Jacobs, R., Westerholm, R., Lee, A., Carbray, J., Heidenreich, J. & Pavuluri, M. (2009). Child and family-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy for pediatric bipolar disorder: Pilot study of group treatment format. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Special Issue: International Perspectives on Bipolar Disorder; 18(3), 239-245.

West, A.E & Pavuluri, M.N. (2009). Psychosocial treatment for childhood and adolescent bipolar disorder. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 18, 471-482.

Pavuluri, M.N., West, A.E., Hill, S., Jindal, K., Harral, E., Henry, D. & Sweeney, J. (2009). Neurocognitive function in pediatric bipolar disorder: 3-year follow-up shows cognitive development lagging behind healthy controls. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 48(3), 299-307.

West, A.E. & Pavuluri, M.N. (2009). Pediatric bipolar disorder. In D. Greydanus, D. Patel, and H. Pratt (eds), Behavioral Pediatrics, Third Edition. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

West, A.E., Schenkel, L.S., & Pavuluri, M. (2008). Early childhood temperament in pediatric bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64(4), 402-421.

Schenkel, L. S., West, A. E., Harral, E. M., Patel, N. B., & Pavuluri, M. N. (2008). Parent-child interactions in pediatric bipolar disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64, 422-437.

West, A.E. & Pavuluri, M. (2007). Maintenance model of integrated psychosocial treatment in pediatric bipolar disorder: A pilot feasibility study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46 (2), 205-212.

West, A.E. & Donenberg, G. (2007). The role of family diversity in the diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders. In S. Loue, M. Sajatovic, & L. Weiss Roberts (Eds.), Diversity Issues in the Diagnosis, Treatment and Research of Mood Disorders. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

West, A.E. & Newman, D. (2007). Childhood behavioral inhibition and the experience of social anxiety in American Indian adolescents. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13(3), 197-206.

West, A.E. & Newman, D. (2003). Worried and Blue: The Relationship Between Mild Parental Anxiety and Depression and Young Children’s Development. Parenting: Science and Practice, 3(2), 133-154.

IJR Faculty Member

Amy E. West, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry
Pediatric Mood Disorders Program

Dr. West specializes in psychosocial treatment for pediatric mood disorders. She directs the Pediatric Intervention Research in Affect Dysregulation and Mood Disorder (PIRAMD) laboratory at the Institute for Juvenile Research. Her team conducts research on the use of psychosocial interventions to treat pediatric bipolar disorder. She also has interests in the developmental psychopathology of mood disorders in children, treatment mechanisms in psychosocial interventions, and in suicidal behavior in pediatric bipolar disorder. Dr. West is the Principal Investigator on a K23 Patient-Oriented Career Development Award funded by NIMH to conduct a preliminary randomized controlled trial of child and family-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CFF-CBT). CFF-CBT (also called the RAINBOW program) is a manual-based psychosocial intervention that combines CBT, psychoeducation, and interpersonal therapy techniques into a family-based treatment model for children 8-12 with a bipolar
spectrum disorder.

Dr. West also has an interest in adapting psychosocial treatments to be culturally-relevant to American Indian youth and in developing models of mental health services for American Indian youth. She is the lead investigator on a SAMHSA-funded Circles of Care grant to develop infrastructure and conduct planning for a mental health system of care for Chicago’s American Indian youth and families. This project involves a community mental health needs assessment study and system of care model development. She is partnering with the American Indian Center of Chicago to conduct this project.

Dr. West received a B.A from Stanford University and her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia. Dr. West completed her pre-doctoral internship at Harvard Medical school/Children's Hospital Boston and was then selected to be a Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) post-doctoral fellow in the Adolescent Medicine Department of Children's Boston/Harvard Medical School. This one-year fellowship was funded by the Maternal Child Health Bureau.

Interests:
Childhood mood disorders, particularly pediatric bipolar disorder; family-focused psychosocial treatment, CBT; child intervention research, treatment mechanisms; suicide; developmental psychopathology of child mood and anxiety disorders, temperament;  community-based participatory research, cultural adaptations of evidence-based treatments, American Indian youth.

Projects:

  • Psychosocial Treatment for Pediatric Bipolar Disorder (funded by National Institutes of Mental Health)
  • American Indian Center Circles of Care: Leading, Engaging, Empowering and Providing for Families (Project LEEP) (funded by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)