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John N. Constantino, MD
Current
Position
Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics
University Roles
Director, William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Education and Training
B.A.: Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1984
Medical Degree: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, 1988
Residency: Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, 1990
Residency: Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, 1992
Fellowship: Child Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, 1993
Research Fellow: Psychiatric Epidemiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, 1996
Major Awards
Listed in Best Doctors in America, 2002-2006 (Best Doctors, Inc)
Gubernational Appointment to the Mental Health Commission, State of Missouri, 2003-2007
Distinguished Service Teaching Award (Clinical Teacher of the Year) WUSM, 2003
Child Advocate of the Year, St. Louis Area Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, 2007
Guardian Angel Award, Family Support Network, St. Louis Missouri (a public-private collaboration with the Children's Trust Fund, State of Missouri), 2008
Areas of Clinical Interest
Disorders of social development in children (infancy through early adulthood) including autism, abnormally aggressive behavior, personality disorder; psychiatric complications of neurodevelopmental disorders; treatment-refractory child psychiatric conditions.
Areas of Research Interests
Longitudinal study of the life course and genetic structure of autistic social impairment.
Preventive intervention program for stressed urban families, in which early parent-child relationships are enhanced in the setting of an infant center, designed to promote healthy social development in children.
Follow-up study of temperament and behavior in children from whom cerebrospinal fluid monoamine metabolites were obtained in infancy.
Study of internal working models (mental representations) of attachment in adolescent twins.
Special Populations, Data Sets and Facilities
Clinical sample of 250 sibling pairs concordant and discordant for autism, enrolled in a longitudinal study of social development.
A collaboration with the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE) to confirm and refine quantitative linkage signals (SRS phenotype) for chromosomal regions potentially containing genetic susceptibility loci for autism.
Participating site in the Simon's Simplex Autism Collection, an international gene bank for single-incidence autism.
Key Publications
Constantino JN, Morris JA, Murphy DL: CSF 5-HIAA and Family history of antisocial personality disorder in newborns. American Journal of Psychiatry 1997; 154:1771-1773.
Constantino JN, Hashemi N, Solis E, Alon T, Haley S, McClure S, Nordlicht N, Constantino MA, Elmen J, Carlson VK: Supplementation of urban home visitation with a series of group meetings for parents and infants: Results of a "real world" randomized, controlled trial. Child Abuse & Neglect 2001; 25:1571-1581.
Constantino JN and Todd RD: Autistic traits in the general population: A twin study. Archives of General Psychiatry 2003; 60:524-530.
Constantino JN, Lajonchere C, Lutz M, Gray T, Abbacchi A, McKenna K, Singh D and Todd RD. Autistic social impairment in the siblings of children with pervasive developmental disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry 2006;163(2):294-296.
Constantino JN, Abbacchi AM, Lavesser PD, Reed H, Givens L, Chiang L, Gray T, Gross M, Zhang Y, Todd RD (2009 Winter). Developmental course of autistic social impairment in males. Dev Psychopathol. 21(1): 127-38. Full Article ->
Duvall JA, Lu A, Cantor RM, Todd RD, Geschwind DH, Constantino JN. A Quantitative Trait Locus Analysis of Social Responsiveness in Multiplex Autism Families. American Journal of Psychiatry 2007;164(4):656-62.
Funded Research Projects
NIAAA (SUNY)(Key Personnel): Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism
The Simons Foundation(PI):The Simons Foundation Simplex Autism Resource: Saint Louis, Missouri Families
CDC (PI): Metropolitan St. Louis Autism & Devel Disabilities Surveillance & Epidemiology
NICHD (PI): Autistic Traits: Life Course & Genetic Structure
NIMH (Key Personnel): Behavioral Pilot for an Imaging Study of Social Attention Deficits in Autism
The Simons Foundation (PI): Brain Circuitry in Simplex Autism
Autism Speaks (PI): Ethnicity and the Elucidation of Autism Endophenotypes
NIMH (Key Personnel): Molecular Basis of Selected GxE Effects in Combined Type ADHD
CDC (Key Personnel): Neurobiology of Affective Prosody Perception in Autism
NIMH (Key Personnel): ACE Network: A Comprehensive Approach to the Identification of Autism Susceptibility Genes