About
Natasha Giddens, MD, MS
Physician-scientist. Psychiatrist for children, adolescents, and adults. Researcher in addiction, sleep, and the neuroscience that connects them.
Biography
Dr. Natasha Giddens is a psychiatrist practicing in New York and Washington, DC, with subspecialty training in child and adolescent psychiatry and a clinical and research focus on addiction and sleep with co-occurring psychiatric disorders.
She completed her undergraduate and post-baccalaureate premedical studies at Georgetown University and earned her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine, where she was selected for the National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program in the Division of Behavioral Endocrinology. After medical school she joined the Laboratory of Neuroimaging at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as a Postdoctoral Intramural Research Training Award fellow under Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. There her work used large national datasets and brain imaging to examine sleep in American children and the disrupted brain dynamics and daily rhythms seen in opioid and alcohol use disorders.
Dr. Giddens completed her residency in general psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, where she was recognized with the National Institute of Mental Health Outstanding Resident Award in 2024. She went on to fellowship training in child and adolescent psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital, Northwell Health, in New York. In 2026 the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology selected her for its Career-Spanning Mentorship Award, a three-year program pairing early-career physician-scientists with senior investigators. She sees patients in New York and Washington, DC; details on what to expect are on the Treatment and Schedule pages.
Her clinical approach reflects her research: careful measurement, attention to sleep and substance use as drivers of psychiatric illness rather than afterthoughts, and treatment plans grounded in current evidence and explained in plain terms. She is a member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Outside the office she enjoys ballet, swimming, museums, biking, hiking, and time outdoors.
Education and training
| Fellowship | Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Zucker Hillside Hospital, Northwell Health, New York |
|---|---|
| Residency | Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, Madison, 2022–2025 |
| Research fellowship | Postdoctoral IRTA Fellow, Laboratory of Neuroimaging, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health |
| Medical degree | Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC, 2020 |
| Graduate degree | Master of Science |
| Undergraduate and post-baccalaureate | Georgetown University, Washington, DC |
Research
Dr. Giddens's research asks how sleep and substance use change the brain, and how those changes differ across age, sex, and social circumstance. Her first-author paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences documented disparities in sleep duration among American children by race and ethnicity, income, age, and sex. With colleagues at NIAAA she has studied disrupted brain state dynamics in opioid and alcohol use disorder, rest–activity rhythms in opioid use disorder, dopamine receptor availability and methylphenidate response, and the intersection of substance use and HIV. A full list is on the Publications page.