Gail Bernstein, MD

I received a BA in Psychology from Tufts University in Massachusetts and completed medical school and a postdoctoral research fellowship in child psychiatry here at the University of Minnesota. I completed my residency in general psychiatry, a residency in pediatrics, and a child psychiatry fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

I am a child and adolescent psychiatrist and focus on anxiety and mood disorders. I am board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology and the American Board of Pediatrics. I also hold an Endowed Professorship in Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders. I have an h-index of 34 with close to 3,500 citations, and in most of my peer-reviewed articles, I am first or last author.

I supervise psychiatry residents, child and adolescent psychiatry fellows, and psychology interns doing evaluations and treatment in the Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders Clinic. I also serve as a Grand Rounds committee member within the department.

I am on the editorial board of several scientific journals and serve as an Ad Hoc Grant Reviewer for the National Institute of Mental Health. I have been included in the Best Doctors in America database from 1996-2014, and was selected as a Top Doctor in Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2020.

• Fellow, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Minnesota Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Dr. Bernstein’s primary research interests include anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD) in children and adolescents. She is currently completing an investigation of brain imaging in adolescents with OCD and healthy controls. Dr. Bernstein is the recipient of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Norbert and Charlotte Reiger Award for Scientific Achievement for the most outstanding research paper published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, in 2005. Dr. Bernstein is on the editorial board of several scientific journals and serves as an Ad Hoc Grant Reviewer for the National Institute of Mental Health.

We have completed an NIMH funded neuroimaging and sertraline treatment study for children and adolescents with OCD and are currently in data analysis. Sertraline is FDA approved for the treatment of pediatric OCD.