Anthony Spirito, PhD, ABPP is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed his predoctoral and postdoctoral training at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Spirito has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and his work has been supported by NIMH, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and the National Institute on Druge Abuse (NIDA), as well as foundations, such as the American Foundation for Suicide Research. Along with colleagues at Brown, he recently completed three treatment development studies to determine if combined approaches, e.g., exercise and CBT, can increase the efficacy of treatment for adolescent depression. Dr, Spirito and colleagues developed an integrated, intensive CBT protocol for adolescents with substance use disorders, NSSI, depression, and suicidality as well as their parents. He and his colleagues just completed a test of this protocol in a large efficacy trial with a sample of adolescents discharged from inpatient psychiatric care. He also just completed a trial of the same protocol in an Intensive Outpatient Program in a community mental health clinic where mental health counselors were trained in the protocol. He is currently collaborating on a Rhode Island Department of Health SAMSHA grant designed to divert youth in schools with mental health emergencies from the Emergency Department to less expensive, and more appropriate, levels of care.
