Edward S. Brodkin, MD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry

Edward S. Brodkin, M.D. is a co-founder and an attending psychiatrist of the Penn Adult Social Learning Disorders Program. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and attending psychiatrist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Brodkin received his A.B. Magna Cum Laude in History of Science from Harvard University in 1988 and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1992. He then completed an internship in pediatrics and residency in psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Medical Center, and was chief psychiatry resident at the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit at Yale. He went on to postdoctoral fellowships in neurobiology research at Yale (1996-1998) and in genetics research at Princeton University (1998-2002), focusing on biological studies of social behaviors.  He is board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Dr. Brodkin has been treating adults with autism spectrum disorders and other social learning disorders (SLDs) since 1993, when he worked for several years in the Yale Adult Autism Program. There, he gained experience with both psychotherapy and medication treatments for adults with SLDs, and he was an author of several published studies of medication treatments for adults with autism spectrum disorders. His current research is focused on the genetics and neurobiology of social behaviors, both in humans and in animal models (see www.uphs.upenn.edu/cnb/brodkin.htm).  His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, Science, Neuroscience, Journal of Neuroscience, Brain Research, Biological Psychiatry, and Molecular Psychiatry, and he is the author of several published scientific and medical textbook chapters on psychiatric genetics and psychopharmacology. He also teaches in graduate and medical school courses on behavioral genetics and neuroscience at University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Brodkin has received honors and awards including the Detur Prize at Harvard University (1985), John Harvard Scholarship (1984-1988), election to Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard University (1988), the Leadership Award for Residents from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (1994), Seymour L. Lustman Research Award at Yale University (1996), National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (1998-2000), Young Investigator Award from NARSAD (2003-2005), New Investigator Award from the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (2003-2005), Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences (1998-2005), and Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award from NIMH (2003-2008).

Dr. Brodkin's area of clinical specialization is in diagnostic evaluation, psychotherapy, and medication therapy for adults (age 18 and older) with Asperger's disorder/high-functioning autism, schizoid or avoidant personality, social phobia, and other SLDs. In addition, he specializes in treatment of individuals with "shadow syndromes" related to Asperger's disorder and schizoid personality, i.e. individuals with less severe, but still significant difficulties in social situations, who otherwise may be capable of functioning well in school or work. He is particularly interested helping such individuals with social functioning related to work or higher education, such as job interviewing and interacting with peers and supervisors. As an active genetics researcher, as well as clinical psychiatrist, Dr. Brodkin is also interested in developing resources to help individuals and families interpret genetic information and genetic testing results related to autism and SLDs, as more and more is discovered about the genetics of these conditions.