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Jessica Ruth Lunsford-Avery

Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychiatry
2608 Erwin Road Suite 300, Durham, NC 27705
2608 Erwin Road, Suite 300, Durham, NC 27705

Research Interests


My research focuses on the role of sleep disturbances in the onset and maintenance of psychiatric and behavioral disorders in childhood and adolescence. Specifically, I am interested in how sleep problems may contribute to increased psychiatric symptoms, difficulties with cognition, and reduced functioning for youth with ADHD. I hope my research will help to identify children at risk for sleep problems and psychiatric conditions and lead to developing more effective prevention and treatment strategies.

Selected Grants


Preschool Attention and Sleep Support (PASS): A Telehealth Intervention for Children at Risk for ADHD

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institute of Mental Health · 2023 - 2026

Effects of prenatal maternal depression and antidepressant exposures on offspring neurodevelopmental trajectories: A birth cohort study

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc. · 2021 - 2026

Sleep Dysfunction and Neurocognitive Outcomes in Adolescent ADHD

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2016 - 2022

Behavioral and genetic mechanisms of smoking risk in individuals with ADHD

ResearchPsychologist · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2012 - 2018