Alan Hanft, MD

About Alan Hanft, MD - Clinician, Child Psychiatrist

After college at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I attended medical school at McGill University. I then completed a residency in Psychiatry at USC and a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School. After completing these 10 years of training in 1992, I worked mostly for academic centers. I was faculty in the medical schools of Harvard and Tufts universities, and then returned to California where I was faculty at the University of California and USC for many years. For several years I’ve been Board Certified in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, General Adult Psychiatry, and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.

Besides being dedicated to medical education, I’ve always been dedicated to providing patients the best care possible. I’ve worked in many settings including inpatient, outpatient, partial hospitalization, telepsychiatry, emergency rooms, and medical/surgical units. My experience includes treating depression, bipolar, anxiety, psychosis, ADHD, and autism. Areas of expertise include evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of ADHD, anxiety disorders, autism, depression, psychosis, and other psychiatric concerns.

I believe a careful, empathic evaluation is a cornerstone of appropriate treatment. My aim is to facilitate a safe, warm, welcoming environment, and foster collaboration in developing an individualized, wholistic treatment plan. With honesty and compassion I will work with you to create an open channel of communication. The goal of our therapy sessions together will be to help you develop the fortitude to lead a successful and fulfilling life. Additionally, we will work on the skill of self-compassion which will allow you to move more easily through difficult times in the future as well as become a more productive and happier person.

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.”
— Nido Qubein
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A selection of scholarly work includes:

  • Hanft A, Goodlin-Jones BL, Burnham MM, Anders TF. Sleep Disturbances in Infants of Substance Abusing Mothers. Sleep 23(S 2):9, 2000

  • Hanft A, Bourgeois JA. Risperidone and Pancreatitis. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 43(12):1458-1459, 2004

  • Hanft A, Hendren RL. The Pharmacotherapy of Children and Adolescents with Pervasive Developmental Disorders. Essential Psychopharmacology 6(1):11-24, 2004

  • Hanft A, Eggleston C A, Bourgeois JA. Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome in an Adolescent After Brief Exposure to Olanzapine. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology 14(3):481-487, 2004

  • Hanft A, Eggleston CA, Bourgeois JA. Olanzapine and NMS in an Adolescent. Psychiatry Review Series 7(4):59-61, 2005

  • Hanft A, Burnham MM, Goodlin-Jones BL, Anders TF. Sleep Architecture in infants of Substance Abusing Mothers. Infant Mental Health Journal 27(2):141-151, 2006

  • Mourra S, Hanft A. Book review: Boys of Few Words-Raising Our Sons to Communicate and Connect, by Adam J. Cox, PhD. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 46(9):1227-1228, 2007

  • Turkel S, Hanft A, Epstein D, Jacobson J. Review of Pediatric Delirium in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Journal of Pediatric Intensive Care 2:169-176, 2014

  • Turkel S, Hanft A. The Pharmacologic Management of Delirium in Children and Adolescents. Paediatric Drugs 16(4):267-274, 2014

  • Hanft A. Book review: How Many More Questions?: Techniques for Clinical Interviews of Young Medically Ill Children, by Rochelle Caplan, M.D. and Brenda Bursch, PhD. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 54(11):960-961, 2015

  • Levine L, Hanft A. Book review: Therapeutic Metaphors for Children and the Child Within, 2nd edition, by Joyce C. Mills, PhD. and Richard J. Crowley, PhD. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 54(12):1052-1053, 2015

  • Nguyen D, Kaiser P, Turkel S, Hanft A. Mirtazapine Use in Depressed Pediatric Oncology Patients. Abstract/poster Annual meeting American Psychiatric Association, May 2017.

  • Kaiser P, Nguyen D, Turkel S, Hanft A. Benefits of Mirtazapine for Depression in Children and Adolescents with Cystic Fibrosis. Abstract/poster Annual meeting American Psychiatric Association, May 2017.