Susan Dosreis

Biography

Dr. Susan dosReis is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. She received a bachelor of science in pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island School of Pharmacy and a doctorate in pharmacoepidemiology from the University of Maryland Graduate School.  She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in child mental health services from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Prior to this current faculty appointment, she was on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  She works closely with the state Mental Hygiene Administration on policies and programs that impact child mental health services. She is a core faculty of the Maryland Child Mental Health Advisory group within the Center for Child Mental Health Innovations at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.  In this role, she advises the state on child psychopharmacologic treatment of youth in the public mental health system, with a specific focus on psychotropic medication use among youth in the child welfare system.

Research Interest

Through several federally-funded research grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), she has developed a profile of research on psychotropic medication use among children and adolescents, examining disparities in psychotropic use by age, race, and foster care involvement, characterizing psychotropic treatment by combined use with psychotherapy for ADHD, and use of multiple psychotropic medications, and assessing longitudinal patterns in antipsychotic treatment for adults with schizophrenia. She developed two surveys; the ASK-ME survey, which assesses parental perceptions of stimulant treatment for their child’s ADHD, and a survey to assess pediatricians’ identification and screening of autism spectrum disorders in young children.  Using qualitative research methods, she has investigated parental perspectives of their child’s ADHD and developed a conceptual model of how parents approach mental health care for their children.