Our practice
Most psychiatric conditions do not arrive alone. A teenager with ADHD may also be sleeping four hours a night; an adult in early recovery may be treating depression with the very substance that deepens it. Insomnia and opioid use each reshape the brain’s rhythms and make the other harder to treat. This practice evaluates the whole picture, names each condition clearly, and treats them together rather than in sequence.
Dr. Giddens trained at Howard University College of Medicine, the University of Wisconsin, and Zucker Hillside Hospital, Northwell Health, and was a research fellow at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism with Dr. Nora Volkow, studying how substance use and sleep alter brain function (see Publications). That background shapes the questions she asks, the measures she uses, and the plain language she uses to explain a plan.
How we work
- A thorough first evaluation
- 60 to 90 minutes covering history, prior treatment, sleep, substance use, medical conditions, and, for younger patients, family and school.
- A plan you understand
- Every recommendation comes with its reasoning, evidence, and alternatives. You leave with a written summary.
- Measurement, not guesswork
- Symptoms, sleep, and side effects are tracked between visits with validated rating scales, and we use mobile actigraphy for appropriate sleep disorders or concerns, for more diagnostic precision than a sleep history alone.
- Care that coordinates
- With your permission, we work alongside your other physicians, your therapist, and, for young people, the school.
Two cities, one practice
Offices in New York and Washington, DC, with telehealth follow-up for established patients in either.
“Sleep and substance use are not side notes in a psychiatric history. They are often the engine. When we treat them with the same seriousness as mood or anxiety, patients get better faster and stay better longer.”