Gail Bernstein, MD

Professor
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Phone: (612) 273-9711
Email: berns001@umn.edu

Dr. Bernstein is the Head of the new Program in Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders.  She received her MD from the University of Minnesota and completed the Pediatrics Residency and Child Psychiatry fellowship at the University of Wisconsin as well as the General Psychiatry Residency and a postdoctoral research fellowship in Child Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota.  Dr. Bernstein is tripled-boarded (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, General Psychiatry, and Pediatrics).  She joined the University of Minnesota Department of Psychiatry in 1985.

Her primary research interests include anxiety disorders in children and adolescents, school refusal, pharmacotherapy for school refusal, and the effects of caffeine on learning and performance in children.  Dr. Bernstein recently completed an NIMH-funded grant for the investigation of multimodal treatment for adolescents with school refusal.  (Specifically, the investigation of imipramine versus placebo in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of adolescents with school refusal.)

She won the 2000 Children’s Mental Health Alliance Psychotherapy Award for the manuscript that best advances the understanding of psychotherapy published by a child and adolescent psychiatrist.  This paper, which was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, was based on efficacy data from her NIMH-funded treatment study. 

She is the recent recipient of an Endowed Professorship in Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders.  Dr. Bernstein is currently on the editorial board of several scientific journals.

Educational Summary:
University of Minnesota - School of Medicine - M.D., 1977
Residency in Psychiatry - University of Wisconsin, 1977-78
Residency in Pediatrics - University of Wisconsin, 1978-81
Residency in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry – University of Wisconsin 1981-82
Residency in Psychiatry - University of Minnesota, 1983-84
Postdoctoral Research Fellow - University of Minnesota, 1984-85.

Relevant Prior Experience:
Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota, 1985-92
Associate Professor, University of Minnesota, 1992-2002
Director, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1996-00
Head, Program in Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders, 2001-present
Endowed Associate Professorship, Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders, University of Minnesota, 2001-02

Responsibilities/Activities In This Residency:
Outpatient supervisor
Inpatient supervisor
Course director, Resident didactics
Lecturer, Resident didactics

Research/Scholarly Interests:
Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents
School refusal
Caffeine use, effects and dependence in youth
Children's Mental Health Alliance Psychotherapy 
NIMH Ad Hoc Grant Reviewer