Dr. Elizabeth Jane Costello is a distinguished Professor Emerita in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center, where she has made seminal contributions to child and adolescent mental health research. She serves as Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and Faculty Research Scholar of DuPRI's Population Research Center, maintaining active scholarly engagement despite her emeritus status. As Co-Director of the Developmental Epidemiology Program at Duke, she has established herself as a leading authority in psychiatric epidemiology with a focus on developmental trajectories of mental disorders. Her career has been characterized by rigorous methodological approaches to understanding the complex interplay between biological, psychological, and social factors in mental health development across the lifespan.
Dr. Costello's landmark Great Smoky Mountains Study, initiated in 1993 with 1,420 representative children aged nine to thirteen from western North Carolina, represents one of the most comprehensive longitudinal investigations of child mental health in the United States. This pioneering research has systematically tracked participants into adulthood, examining the prevalence, causes, and consequences of psychiatric disorders while innovatively incorporating multiple levels of analysis including community, family, individual, brain physiology, and genomic factors. Her work has fundamentally reshaped understanding of how mental health conditions emerge and evolve, identifying critical risk and resilience factors that influence developmental pathways. The study's findings have provided invaluable evidence for distinguishing between transient difficulties and persistent disorders, establishing patterns of continuity in risk factors across developmental stages.
Beyond empirical research, Dr. Costello has significantly influenced mental health policy by developing conceptual frameworks for estimating unmet treatment needs and identifying strategic points for preventive interventions within children's mental healthcare systems. Her research has directly informed federal and local policymakers while simultaneously advancing scientific understanding of service utilization patterns among youth. Currently, she continues to contribute to the field through analysis of developmental methylomics and investigations into diseases of despair in young adulthood, demonstrating remarkable adaptability to emerging scientific methodologies. Her enduring legacy lies in establishing developmental epidemiology as a vital discipline that bridges clinical practice, public health, and basic science to improve mental health outcomes for future generations.
