Our experts

Area of Expertise

• Learning disabilities
• ADHD
• autism
• antisocial behaviour
• genetics
• epidemiology

Biography

Emily Simonoff is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry with the CAMHS Neuropsycxiatry Service. and Service for Complex Autism and Associated Neurodevelopmental Disorders (SCAAND).

She is also Head of the Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, and academic lead for the CAMHS Clinical Academic Group at King’s Health Partners, King’s College London.

Professor Simonoff  in a UK National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigator and Senior Clinical Advisor to the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).  She has been a member of two NICE Guidelines groups for autism and a member of the Strategy Board for the UK National Autism Project. She has been a member of the Westminster Commission for Autism and has given evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism.

Emily receives research funding related to autism from the Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute of Health and Research EU Innovative Medicines Initiative, amongst other organization.  She is the Chair of the European ADHD Guidelines Group, a multidisciplinary of clinical academics devoted to assessing evidence and making recommendations in relation to assessment and treatment of ADHD.

 

Other roles (current and last five years) have included

• Editorial Board:  British Journal of Psychiatry and Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• 2017 - External Advisory Panel, ‘Cure Kids’ Mental Health Research in New Zealand
• 2017 - Panel Member Neuroscience and Mental Health Board, Medical Research Council
• 2017 - Member, Program Committee, International Society for Autism Research (INSAR)
• 2018 - Member, Program Committee, International Society for Autism Research (INSAR)
• 2019 - Member, Program Committee, International Society for Autism Research (INSAR)

 

She is a member of:

• The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health
• Child Psychiatry Research Society
• Royal College of Psychiatrists
• British Medical Association
• International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
• International Society for Psychiatric Genetics
• International Society for Research in Autism
• American Academy for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• European Network for Hyperkinetic Disorder (EUNETHYDIS)
• European College of Neuropsychopharmacology

 

Research

Her current research interests are focused on co-occurring mental disorders in children and adolescents with intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Over the last 15 years, Professor Simonoff has taken part in epidemiological and clinical studies. Her research has highlighted the importance of other mental disorders in children with autism and has fed into two sets of NICE guidance: on the diagnosis and treatment of attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and diagnosis of autism.

Education and Training

 

• BA, Psychology and Social Relations, Harvard University, 1977
• MD, Harvard Medical School, 1982
• Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1986

 

Roles

• Since 2010: Academic Lead for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Clinical Academic Group at King’s Health Partners, King’s College London
• Since 2008: Head of Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London
• Since 2004: Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London
• 1998-2004: Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ Medical School, King’s College London

 

Publications

Professor Siminoff has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. For a complete list of his published work please see her KCL research page.

 

Selected publications from the last two years:

Palmer, M., Paris Perez, J., Tarver, J., Cawthorne, T., Frayne, M., Webb, S., Baker, E., Yorke, I., Hay, D., Slonims, V., Pickles, A., Simonoff, E., Scott, S., Charman, T. (In Press). Development of the Observation Schedule for Children with Autism – Anxiety, Behaviour and Parenting (OSCA–ABP): A new measure of child and parenting behaviour for use with young autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Cortese, S., Asherson, P., Sonuga-Barke, E., Banaschewski, T., Brandeis, D., Buitelaar, J., Coghill1, D., Daley, D., Danckaerts, M., Dittmann, R.W., Doepfner, M., Ferrin, M., Hollis, C., Holtmann, M., Konofal, E., Lecendreux, M., Paramala, S., Rothenberger, A., Soutullo, C., Steinhausen, H.C., Taylor, E., Van der Oord, S., Wong, I., Zuddas, A., Simonoff, E. European ADHD Guidelines Group (EAGG) (In Press). Management approaches for ADHD during the COVID-19 virus pandemic: guidance from the European ADHD Guidelines Group (EAGG). Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.

Morris, A., Macdonald, A., Moghraby, O., Stringaris, A., Hayes, R.D., Simonoff, E., Ford, T., Downs, J. (In Press) Socio-demographic variation in routine outcome monitoring: a historical cohort study of 28,382 young people accessing child and adolescent mental health services. Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Lukito, S., Norman, L., Carlisi, C., Radua, J., Simonoff, E., Rubia, K. (2020) Comparative meta-analyses of brain structural and functional abnormalities during cognitive control in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Psychological Medicine.

Hallet, V., Mueller, J., Breese, L., Hollet, M., Beresford, B., Irvine, A., Pickles, A., Slonims, V., Scott, S., Charman, T., Simonoff, E. (2020) Introducing ‘Predictive Parenting’: A new group parenting intervention targeting emotional and behavioral difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 10.1007/s10803-020-04442-2

Cortese, S., Asherson, P., Sonuga-Barke, E., Banaschewski, T., Brandeis, D., Buitelaar, J., Coghill, D., Daley, D., Danckaerts, M., Dittmann, R.W., Doepfner, M., Ferrin, M., Hollis, C., Holtmann, M., Konofal, E., Lecendreux, M., Paramala, S., Rothenberger, A., Soutullo, C., Steinhausen, H.C., Taylor, E., Van der Oord, S., Wong, I., Zuddas, A., Simonoff, E. European ADHD Guidelines Group (EAGG). (2020). Management approaches for ADHD during the COVID-19 virus pandemic: guidance from the European ADHD Guidelines Group (EAGG). The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30110-3.

Holden, R., Mueller, J., McGowan, J., Sanyal, J., Kikola, M., Simonoff, E., Vellupilai, S., Downs, J. (2020) Investigating bullying as a predictor of suicidality in a clinical sample of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research. doi: 10.1002/aur.2292.

Stringer, D., Kent, R., Briskman, J., Lukito, S., Charman, T., Baird, G., Lord, C., Pickles, A., Simonoff, E. (Online) Trajectories of emotional and behavioral problems from childhood to early adult life. Autism. doi.org/10.1177/1362361320908972

Simonoff, E., Kent, R., Stringer, D., Lord, C., Briskman, J., Lukito,S., Pickles, A., Charman, T., Baird, G. (Epub ahead of print) Trajectories in symptoms of autism and cognitive ability in autism from childhood to adult life: Findings from a longitudinal epidemiological cohort. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2019.11.020

Lau, B.Y., Leong, R., Uljarevic, M., Lerh, J.W., Rodgers, J., Hollocks, M., South, M., McConachie, H., Ozsivadjian, A., Van Hecke, A., Libove, R., Hardan, A., Leekam, S., Simonoff, E., Magiati, I. (2019) Anxiety in Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Common and ASD-Related Anxiety Experiences, and their Associations with Individual Characteristics. Autism. 29(3): 219-229.

Jayaweera, K., Craig, J.M., Zavos, H.M., Abeysinghe, N., De Alwis, S.B., Andras, A., Dissanayake, L., Dziedzic, K., Fernando, B., Glozier, N., Hewamalage, A.P., Ives, J., Jordan, K.P., Kodituwakku, G., Mallen, C., Rahman, O., Zafar, S., Saxena, A., Rijsdijk, F., Saffery, R., Simonoff, E., Yusuf, R., Sumathipala, A.(2019) Protocol for establishing a child and adolescent twin register for mental health research, and capacity building in Sri Lanka and other low and middle-income countries in South Asia. British Medical Journal Open. 2019 Oct 16;9(10):e029332.

Palmer, M., Tarver, J., Paris Perez, J., Cawthorne, T., Romeo, R., Stringer, D., Hallet, V., Mueller, J., Breese, L., Hollet, M., Beresford, B., Knapp, M., Slonims, V., Pickles, A., Simonoff, E., Scott, S., Charman, T. (2019). A novel group parenting intervention to reduce emotional and behavioural difficulties in young autistic children: protocol for the Autism Spectrum Treatment and Resilience pilot randomised controlled trial. British Medical Journal Open. 2019;9: e029959

Wong, I.C., Banaschewski, T., Buitelaar., Cortese, S., Doepfner, M., Simonoff, E., Coghill, D., on behalf of the European ADHD Guidelines Group (EAGG) (2019). Emerging challenges in ADHD pharmacotherapy research – outcome measures beyond symptom control and clinical trials. Lancet Psychiatry 6(6):528-537.

Powell, G., Jones, C.R., Hedge, C., Charman, T., Happe, F., Simonoff, E., Sumner, P. (2019). Face processing in autism spectrum disorder re-evaluated through diffusion models. Neuropsychology 33(4): 445-461.

Oldehinkel, M., Mennes, M., Marquand, A., Charman, T., Tillmann, J., Ecker, C., Dell’Acqua, F., Brandeis, D., Banaschewski, T., Baumeister, S., Moessnang, C., Baron-Cohen, S., Holt, R., Bolte, S., Durston, S., Kundu, P., Lombardo, M.V., Spooren, W., Loth, E., Murphy, D., Beckmann, C.F., Buitelaar, J.K., the EU-AIMS Leap group. (2019). Altered connectivity between cerebellum, visual, and sensory-motor networks in autism spectrum disorder: Results from the EU-AIMS longitudinal European autism project. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. 4 (3): 260-270.

Tarver, J., Palmer, M., Webb, S., Scott, S., Slonims, V., Simonoff, E., Charman, T. (2019). Child and parent outcomes following parent interventions for child emotional and behavioural problems in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): A systematic review and meta-analysis Autism: International Journal of Research and Practice. 23(7): 1630-1644.

Tillmann, J., San José Cáceres, A., Chatham, C. H., Crawley, D., Holt, R., Oakley, B., Banaschewski, T., Baron-Cohen, S., Bölte, S., Buitelaar, J. K., Durston, S., Ham, L., Loth, E., Simonoff, E., Spooren, W., Murphy, D. G., Charman, T., and the EU-AIMS LEAP group (2019). Investigating the factors underlying adaptive functioning in autism in the EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project. Autism Research. 12(4):645-657.