Robert L. Hendren, D.O., is Professor of Psychiatry; Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. From 2001-2009, he was Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Director and Tsakopoulos-Vismara Chair at the University of California, Davis M.I.N.D. Institute (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders). Dr. Hendren is Past President of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2007-2009). Current areas of research and publication interests are translational clinical pharmacology and nutritional trials using biomarkers (MRI, measures of inflammation, oxidative stress, immune function and pharmacogenomics) in neurodevelopmental disorders. He has published well over 100 scientific and clinical papers and 4 books and has been listed in “The Best Doctors in America”, each year since it was first published in 1996.

Dr. Hendren went to medical school at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, took his residency in general psychiatry at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, and his child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center. He has been on the faculty at The George Washington University School of Medicine, the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - Robert Wood Johnson and New Jersey Medical Schools.

In this CCB, he discusses his approach to the assessment and treatment of autism, which is informed by the eclectic influences of his professional background; adheres to the philosophy of “leave no stone unturned” but support your thinking with good science; considers that child psychiatry is exciting “inner space” exploration; and supports that there are many dimensions to building resilience and healing that we should use as health care professionals.