Her research helped validate melatonin as a safe supplemental support for sleep-onset insomnia in ADHD.

Margaret D. Weiss, MD, CM, PhD, is a clinician-researcher whose work has significantly advanced the understanding and treatment of ADHD and related neurodevelopmental conditions. She serves as director of Neurodevelopmental Services at Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard University. Dr. Weiss specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and lifelong study of neurodevelopmental disorders, with particular expertise in ADHD, autism, and sleep. She is also the principal investigator of a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) study examining youth mental health in community settings. Dr. Weiss serves on advisory and scientific boards for professional ADHD societies in Canada, the United States, and internationally.

Dr. Weiss is widely recognized for research demonstrating that melatonin can be a safe and effective treatment for initial insomnia in individuals with ADHD. She has also contributed to the development of medications and evidence-based approaches to treatment. She is the creator of the Weiss Functional Impairment Rating Scale[https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5486894/] (WFIRS), a widely used tool that measures how ADHD affects daily functioning across key areas of life. Translated into multiple languages and used internationally, the scale reflects Dr. Weiss’s commitment to evaluating not only symptoms but also quality of life and real-world functioning. Through both her clinical work and research, she has focused on translating everyday clinical experience into evidence-based care that improves outcomes for individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions.

Dr. Weiss received her medical degree and completed her fellowship in psychiatry at McGill University. She later earned a doctorate in the history of science from Harvard University, reflecting a career that bridges clinical medicine, research, and scholarship. Over the course of her career, she has published more than one hundred and sixty scientific articles and contributed extensively to professional education on ADHD and neurodevelopmental disorders. Her work appears in major medical journals, and she is a coauthor of the book ADHD in Adulthood: A Guide to Current Theory, Diagnosis, and Treatment. She has also written chapters on ADHD for leading psychiatric textbooks.