UIC Department of Psychiatry

Director: Fedra Najjar, MD 

Time: Monday afternoons  

Goals:

1. To provide pharmacological management of children with pervasive developmental disorders in the context of ongoing protocols
2. To assess as objectively as possible the effect of different medications on symptoms by using empirical instruments
3. To provide education to trainees regarding the phenomenology, diagnosis, and treatment of the pervasive developmental disorders 

Eligibility  

1. The patient has a pervasive developmental disorder. This means any of the following:

• Autistic Disorder
• Asperger’s syndrome
• Rett’s syndrome
• Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
• Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified 

2. The patient is between the age of 3 and 17 years of age 

Design 

1. Initial visits will be one hour in length. On the first visit, the patient and caretakers will be instructed to arrive approximately twenty minutes before the appointment time in order to fill out a number of scales and instruments that will be used to assess symptoms (and subsequently to assess change).
2. Follow up visits will be thirty minutes. Again, patients will be asked to arrive approximately twenty minutes early in order to fill out symptom assessment instruments.