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Research program

I study psychiatric treatment, substance use, and mental health outcomes in adolescents and young adults. My work combines epidemiology and clinical informatics to examine how care is delivered and where it can improve.

I am an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and direct the Sultan Lab for Mental Health Informatics. View my institutional profile.

ADHD and medication outcomes

My research examines prescribing patterns, comorbidity, and adverse outcomes among young people with ADHD. This includes analyses of antipsychotic treatment in newly diagnosed youth and adverse behaviors and comorbidity in adolescents.

In an invited JAMA Psychiatry editorial, my coauthors and I discuss registry research on ADHD medication and functional outcomes. The editorial interprets other investigators' analyses.

Substance use and adolescent mental health

My work examines cannabis use across levels of frequency and impairment. Our 2026 Pediatrics study analyzed 162,532 respondents in the 2018–2022 Monitoring the Future surveys, finding associations between cannabis-use frequency and academic and emotional functioning. Its cross-sectional design does not establish causality.

The Cannabis Access and Safety in New York study examines retailer practices and product labeling. Related work includes ADHD and substance use in females and our 2023 study of nondisordered cannabis use.

Clinical informatics

I collaborate on natural language processing and tools that help clinicians interpret complex clinical information. Electronic health record research complements analyses of survey and claims data. Our MIND dashboard work examines how clinicians use narrative summaries of multimodal information.

Projects in development

PAWS: a digital intervention research project

PAWS explores an AI-supported intervention for young people with cannabis use disorder. I am developing the project with Xuhai “Orson” Xu, PhD. The work is investigational; its intended clinical functions require development and evaluation. Read the project overview.

Cannabis use and new-onset psychotic disorders

This project is in development. The proposed work would use claims and health-record data to examine cannabis–psychosis associations and the context of state legalization. It is presented here as a research direction.

Methods

My published work uses national surveys, administrative claims, and electronic health records. Study design and analysis are selected for the research question, with attention to confounding, measurement, and the limits of observational evidence.

Additional interests include evolutionary perspectives on ADHD and digital mental health care.

Research support

Research support has included the NIDA institutional career development program (K12), NIMH research training (T32), an AACAP pilot research award, and Columbia institutional support.

See the research support overview and publications for context.

Page updated: September 9, 2026