Child, Youth and Family Program
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
250 College Street
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R8
(416) 979-6813
joe_beitchman@camh.net

Dr. Joe Beitchman is the Clinical Director of the Child, Youth and Family Program in the Clinical Research Department. He is a Professor and Head of the Division of Child Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and the TD Bank Financial Group Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Areas of Research
Dr. Beitchman has been pursuing two inter-related lines of research: 1. The interface between childhood speech/language impairment and psychiatric disorder; and 2. The exploration of genetic factors in children with persistent, pervasive, and extreme aggressive behaviour. He has recently completed a 20-year follow-up of a community cohort of speech/ language impaired children and matched normal controls. Among the many findings of interest, Dr. Beitchman has reported two pathways to social anxiety disorders: one through a history of speech/language impairment; and the other through a family history of anxiety disorders. Women with a history of speech/language disorders had increased odds of being victimized by sexual assault. With regard to his studies of genetic factors, several papers have been published showing increased susceptibility to aggressive behaviour among children with monoamine oxidase A and serotonin system gene polymorphisms.
 
Publications
View Dr. Beitchman's publications on PubMed.