Ellen Leibenluft

Ellen Leibenluft, M.D. is Senior Investigator and Chief of the Section on Bipolar Spectrum Disorders in the Emotion and Development Branch, Mood and Anxiety Program, National Institute of Mental Health, and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Her research focuses on the brain mechanisms involved in bipolar disorder in children and adolescents.  Her work involves the use of cognitive neuroscience techniques and neuroimaging modalities, including functional MRI.  She has demonstrated that children with bipolar disorder have difficulty processing and adapting flexibly to emotional stimuli, such as emotions on other people’s faces.  She has begun to elucidate the brain mechanisms underlying this deficit, including amygdala dysfunction.  In addition, since questions have been raised as to whether children with impairing irritability should be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Dr. Leibenluft conducts research on this question, including studies on the brain mechanisms mediating severe irritability in children. 

Dr. Leibenluft received her B.A. from Yale University summa cum laude and her M.D. from Stanford University.  After completing residency training at Georgetown University Hospital, she served on the faculty there as director of the psychiatric inpatient unit and day hospital.  She came to the NIMH in 1989, and since that time has been conducting research on bipolar disorder. She has approximately 100 professional publications and is a Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and a member of the editorial boards of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, Bipolar Disorders and the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.

Dr. Leibenluft is a member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American Psychiatric Association Work Groups on Childhood Disorders and Mood Disorders for DSM-V, and the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation Professional Advisory Board.  Her awards include the Distinguished Psychiatrist Award of the American Psychiatric Association, Special Service Awards from the NIH, the NIMH and NIH Outstanding Mentor Awards, and the Virginia Tarlow Memorial Lectureship at Northwestern University.