Prudence Fisher, PhD

  • Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatric Social Work (in Psychiatry)
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Overview

Dr. Prudence Fisher is a Research Scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatric Social Work in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Fisher's expertise is in the development, validation, and implementation of assessment methods for childhood and adolescent mental health conditions. She is widely acknowledged in the field at large as an expert in assessment issues, and she actively collaborates with investigators both within the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia and at other institutions.

Dr. Fisher has been instrumental in the development of numerous versions of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC), the most widely used diagnostic interview for youth, and of many other widely used measures, including the Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS), the Columbia Impairment Scale, and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), among others.

Academic Appointments

  • Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatric Social Work (in Psychiatry)

Gender

  • Female

Research

Dr. Fisher's main research focus is on the development and testing of assessment measures for children and adolescents. Dr. Fisher has been instrumental in the development of numerous versions of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC), the most widely used diagnostic interview for youth, and of many other widely used measures, including the Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS), the Columbia Impairment Scale, and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), among others.

Dr. Fisher serves, or has served, as Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, and consultant on a wide-variety of grants. A small sampling of these include:

Co-Principal Investigator (with J. Blake Turner, Ph.D.) on the study, “Using multiple data sets to examine youth psychiatric diagnoses (R01 MH085150) (2009-2014),” which examines the nosological issues in child psychiatry. Funding from the NIMH.

Co-Principal Investigator, with (Dr. J. Blake Turner, Ph.D.) on "ADHD in Adults – Secondary Data Analyses," with funding from the American Psychiatric Association.

Dr. Fisher continues to work on further development of the Columbia Health and Adverse Reactions to Medication Screen (CHARMS). The CHARMS, a computerized screening instrument for assessing adverse events was developed under a R21 grant from NIMH to Dr. Fisher.

Dr. Fisher, with Dr. David Shaffer, is working on a new version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC), a highly structured psychiatric diagnostic interview designed to be administrated by interviewers without advanced clinical training.

Selected Publications

  • Roberts, R.E, Fisher, P.W., Turner, J.B., & Tang, M.: Estimating the Burden of Psychiatric Disorders in Adolescence: The Impact of Subthreshold Disorders. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 2014;50(3): 397-406
  • Reyes-Portillo, J.A., Mufson, L., Greenhill, L., Gould, M.S., Fisher, P.W., Tarlow, N., & Rynn, M.A.: Web-based interventions for youth internalizing problems: A systematic review. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2014;53(12): 1254-1270
  • Canino, G. Fisher, P.W., Alegria, M. Bird, H.R. : Assessing child impairment in functioning in different contexts: Implications for Use of services and the classification of psychiatric disorders. Open Journal of Medical Psychology 2013;2(1): 29-34
  • Galanter C.A., Hundt S.R., Goyal P., Le J., Fisher P.W.: Variability among research diagnostic interview instruments in the application of DSM-IV-TR criteria for pediatric bipolar disorder. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2012;51(6): 605-21
  • Angold A., Erkanli A., Copeland W., Goodman R., Fisher P.W., Costello E.J.: Psychiatric diagnostic interviews for children and adolescents: a comparative study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2012;51(5): 506-17

For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov