Thomas Spencer, MD

Dr. Thomas Spencer is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Director of the Clinical and Research Program in Pediatric Psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Dr. Spencer earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and his medical degree at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His residency and clinical fellowships in psychiatry and child psychiatry were completed Tufts Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, he was Head of the Clinical Team for the Child and Adolescent Division of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. Dr. Spencer’s research and clinical interests have focused on the effectiveness and safety of standard and novel pharmacologic treatments of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) throughout the lifecycle.
Dr. Spencer has been a co-investigator in Dr. Joseph Biederman’s longitudinal and family-genetic studies of ADHD. Dr. Spencer is the Principal Investigator in an NIMH-funded project that examines the translation of improvement of ADHD symptoms into increased cognitive and functional capacities, as well as quality of life in adults with ADHD. Dr. Spencer is also the Principal Investigator in a large NIMH funded PET study examining dopamine transporter binding and genetic markers in adults with ADHD.
 In addition, he has authored over 150 articles, which have been published in American Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, and Archives of General Psychiatry, to name a few. His abstracts, book chapters, and presentations in national scientific meetings collectively number more than 140. Dr. Spencer is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Elaine Schlosser Lewis Award for the most significant article published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Massachusetts General Hospital’s “Golden Rattle” Award for Excellence in Teaching.