Psychiatry

The Department of Psychiatry has been at the forefront of psychiatric care for decades. Members of our faculty were among the first to champion the medical model of psychiatry and view psychiatric dysfunction as an interaction between genes and environment.

The department and its faculty continue to be in the vanguard of both the study and treatment of mental illness.

Text Size: S M L

Home > Physicians Directory > Psychiatry

Joan L. Luby, MD

Specialty Areas
Infant/Preschool Mental Disorders

Areas of Clinical Interest
Mood disorders in preschool children: diagnosis and treatment, developmental psychopathology, mental disorders in preschool children, Dyadic Play Therapy for preschool mood disorders, and preschool psychiatry.

Areas of Research Interest
Mood disorders in the preschool period.
Emotional development and Early intervention/prevention.
The nosology and course of preschool depression.
Treatment study of pediatric bipolar disorder.
Functional and structural neuroimaging of depressed preschool populations.

Major or Recent Publications/Awards
Honors and Awards

CHADS Coalition for Mental Health Research Award, 2008

Listed in Best Doctors in America, (Best Doctors, Inc), 2002 - 2008

Listed in America's Top Doctors Castle Connolly Medical Ltd, 2002 - 2008

NARSAD Gerald L. Klerman for Outstanding Clinical Research, 2004

NIMH and NARSAD Career Development Award, 1999-2003

Graduate with Honors, Poetry and Science, Brown University, 1981


Selected Book Chapters

Luby JL, Meade Stalets M, Belden A. Depression. In: Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development Vol 1, (Haith MM, Benson JB, eds), Academic Press 2008; pp 366-373

Luby JL. Mood disorders. In: W.E. Narrow, M.B. First & D.A. Regier (Eds.), Age and gender considerations in psychiatric diagnosis: A research agenda for DMS-V. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association 2007; pp 191-200

Luby JL, Belden A. Mood disorders. In: Handbook of Preschool Mental Health: Development, Disorders and Treatment, Guilford Press (Luby JL editor), Guilford Press, New York 2006

Luby JL. Psychopharmacology. In: Handbook of Preschool Mental Health: Development, Disorders and Treatment, Guilford Press (Luby JL editor), 2006

Luby JL, Belden A. Mood disorders. In: Handbook of Preschool Mental Health: Development, Disorders and Treatment, Guilford Press. New York, 2006

Meade Stalets M, Luby J. Preschool Depression. In: Psychiatric Clinics of North America 2006; 15:899-917

Luby JL. Disorders of infancy and early childhood nos. In: Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, 8th ed., Vol. 2, (Sadock BJ, Sadock VA, eds.), Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, 2005; pp 3257-3261.

Luby JL. Affective disorders. Handbook of Infant and Toddler Mental Health Assessment, Oxford University Press, New York (2004).


Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Luby, JL, Si, X., Belden, A.C., Tandon, M., Spitznagel, E. Preschool Depression (in press) Homotypic Continuity and Course Over 24 Months. Archives of General Psychiatry.

Luby, J.L (in press) Early Childhood Depression: Clinical Identification and Treatment Considerations. American Journal of Psychiatry.

Luby JL, Belden AC, Pautsch J, Si X, Spitznagel E (2008 May 15). The clinical significance of preschool depression: Impairment in functioning and clinical markers of the disorder. Journal Affective Disorders.

Belden AC, Thomson NR, Luby JL. Temper tantrums in healthy versus depressed and disruptive preschoolers: defining tantrum behaviors associated with clinical problems. The Journal of Pediatrics 2008: 152(1): 117-22.

Luby JL, Tandon M, Nicol G. Cardinal symptoms of mania in clinically referred preschoolers: Description of three clinical cases with presumptive preschool bipolar disorder. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology 2007; 17(2):237-244

Luby JL, Stalets MM, Belden AC. Psychotropic prescriptions in a sample of healthy mood and disruptive disordered preschoolers: Relationships to diagnosis impairment, prescriber type and assessment methods. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology 2007; 17(2):2005-216

Belden AC, Sullivan JP, Luby JL. Depressed and healthy preschoolers' internal representations of their mothers' caregiving: Associations with observed caregiving behavior one year later. Attachment and Human Development 2007; 9(3):239-254

Luby JL, Belden AC, Sullivan J, Spitznagel E. Preschoolers' contribution to their diagnosis of depression and anxiety: Uses and limitations of young child self-report of symptoms. Child Psychiatry and Human Development 2007;38(4):321-338

Belden Ac, Thomson N, Luby JL. Temper trantrums in healthy versus depressed and disruptive preschoolers: Defining trantrum behaviors associated with clinical problems. Journal of Pediatrics 2008; 152(1):117-122

Gleason MM, Egger HL, Emslie GJ, Greenhill LL, Kowatch RA, Luby JL, Owens J, Scahill LD.Scheeringa MS, Stafford B, Wise B, Zeanah CH. Psychopharmacological treatment for very young children: Context and guidelines. Special communication. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2007; 46(12):1532-1572

Luby J, Sullivan J, Belden A, Stalets M, Blankenship S, Spitznagel E. An Observational Analysis of Behavior in Depressed Preschoolers: Further Validation of Early Onset Depression. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2006; 45 (2): 203-212.

Belden A, Luby J. Preschoolers’ Depression Severity and Behaviors During Dyadic Interactions: The Mediating Role of Parental Support. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2006; 45: (2) 213-222.

Luby J, Belden A. Validating and Defining Bipolar Disorder in the Preschool Period. Development and Psychopathology 2006; 18(4):971-988

Luby J, Belden A, Spitznagel E. Risk Factors for preschool depression: The mediating role of early stressful life events. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 2006; 47(12)1292-1298

Luby JL, Mrakotsky C, Meade Stlets M, Belden A, Heffelfinger A, Williams M, Spitznagel E. Risperdone in preschool children with autistic spectrum disorders: An investigation of safety and efficacy. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology 2006; 16(5):1-13

Luby JL, Heffelfinger AK, Mrakotsky C, Brown KM, Hessler MJ, Wallis JM, Spitznagel EL (2003 Mar). The clinical picture of depression in preschool children. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 42(3): 340-8.

For more articles and abstracts, take this off-site link to the National Library of Medicine Pub Med page for Dr. Joan Luby

Joan L. Luby, MD