New knowledge and innovative treatments
Our clinical research program generates new knowledge of, and treatments for, people living with autism and other developmental disorders. We use our unique access to dynamic clinical programs at MaineHealth Behavioral Health Autism and Developmental Disorders Portland to perform innovative studies in real-world settings.
Our research includes a focus on features of severe autism, sleep disorders and circadian rhythm, psychiatric co-morbidity, and using wearable devices and other advanced sensing technologies to detect physiology and predict challenging behaviors through artificial intelligence.
We founded and run the multi-site Autism and Developmental Disorders Inpatient Research Collaborative (ADDIRC).
Studies
This multi-site study is building a critical reference collection of phenotypic and genetic data on youth severely affected by autism, accessible to investigators worldwide. This study has enrolled and rigorously phenotyped over 1500 youth and already generated over 25 research publications. This work has also produced key evidence and standards for inpatient psychiatric treatment of the developmentally delayed population. Funded by the Simons Foundation and the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation.
This study capitalizes on our inpatient unit’s unique access to 24 hour monitoring of youth severely affected by autism to investigate developmental changes in sleep and the circadian regulation of sleep may contribute to the escalation of challenging behavior. This study will then move to the outpatient setting to further investigate these patterns in the home environment. This study is funded by the National Institute of Child and Human Development.