He was Chief of the Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
[3] He attracted controversy and public attention for his role in promoting the diagnosis of childhood bipolar disorder and his financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
[8] Described as "one of the world's most influential child psychiatrists",[9] Biederman published hundred of papers on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and ranks as one of the most-cited researchers on the subject.
[11][12] Biederman also led studies concluding that a substantial minority of children diagnosed with ADHD actually had pediatric bipolar disorder.
This theory was proposed at a time when it was unheard for young children to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is characterized by severe mood swings.
[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] In 1986, Weller et al.[35] searched the literature of case reports describing children with severe psychiatric symptoms.
To deal with this problem, Biederman began a program of research aimed at clarifying the diagnosis and better understanding its etiologic links with other disorders.
[41] The sample consisted of all children, 12 years or younger, who had been consecutively referred to Biederman's pediatric psychopharmacology clinic since 1991.
Notably, symptom overlap analyses showed that this high rate of comorbidity was not due to diagnostic criteria shared by the two disorders.
Using the same sample, Biederman evaluated the ability of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to identify children with bipolar disorder.
Because other research groups replicated his findings,[43] they now provide a simple method for pediatricians and child psychiatrists to screen for bipolar disorder in their practices.
Thus, he sought to identify a more homogeneous subgroup of CD youth with distinct pathophysiology, course, family history, outcome and treatment response.
To address this issue, Biederman examined 140 ADHD and 120 normal controls at baseline and four years later using assessments from multiple domains.
[54] He systematically reviewed their clinical records to assess: 1) the course of manic symptoms and 2) all medications prescribed at each follow-up visit.
The diagnostic studies suggested an additional target for secondary prevention in bipolar disorder: comorbid ADHD and depressive symptoms.
[55] Although treatment with tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) had significant anti-ADHD effects, they also had a destabilizing impact on manic symptoms.
By reducing the aggressiveness and delinquency of bipolar disorder+CD children, the treatment protocols developed by Biederman make possible the primary prevention of some violent behavior in juveniles.
[58][59] In 2008, Senator Chuck Grassley, undertook an investigation[60] that alleged that Joseph Biederman had violated federal regulations in addition to Harvard Medical School's and Massachusetts General Hospital's research rules by receiving money from the pharmaceutical companies.
[61] According to newspaper reports, Biederman received research funding from 15 drug companies and served as a paid speaker or adviser to seven, including Eli Lilly & Co. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
[58] In 2011, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School disciplined Biederman for small clerical errors that violated conflict of interest policies.
[66] Biederman retained his Professorship at Harvard and his positions at the Massachusetts General Hospital where he was subsequently awarded an endowed Chair.