Helen Link Egger, M.D.
Occupation/Employment
Child psychiatrist/epidemiologist/psychiatric researcher; Assistant Professor, Center for Developmental Epidemiology, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.
Affiliations
Board Member, ZERO TO THREE; American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; American Psychopathological Association; Association of Women Psychiatrists; International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology; World Association of Infant Mental Health.
Contributions to the Field
Dr. Egger’s research program focuses on psychiatric disorders, particularly anxiety disorders in preschool children ages 2 through 5 years of age. She has been a leader in the development of measures for assessing psychiatric symptoms and disorders in young children. Dr. Egger is lead author of the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (PAPA), the first comprehensive structured parent interview for assessing psychiatric symptoms and disorders in preschool children.
Current Research
Dr. Egger is currently co-conducting a number of NIMH-funded studies including a large, community study of preschool anxiety disorders, a longitudinal study of children diagnosed with psychiatric disorders as preschoolers, and an fMRI/eye tracking study of children diagnosed with anxiety disorders as preschoolers. Dr. Egger is also a collaborator on the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a longitudinal study of the effects of early deprivation with children in Romanian orphanages. Dr. Egger is also clinical director of the Duke Preschool Psychiatric Clinic and conducts comprehensive evaluations and provides treatment for children and their families. She is building an early childhood neuroimaging program within the Center for Developmental Epidemiology at Duke University.
Recent Honors/Awards/Recognition/Books Published
In 2004, she received the Gerald L. Klerman Award for outstanding clinical research by a NARSAD Young Investigator. Dr. Egger is most proud of recently being awarded a large neuroimaging grant from NIMH to focus on the neural dysfunction underlying early onset anxiety disorders.
