David A. Axelson, MD

David A. Axelson, MD, is chief of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Nationwide Children's Hospital, chief of the Section of Psychiatry at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the John W. Wolfe Endowed Chair in Pediatric Psychiatry. He is a professor of psychiatry at The Ohio State University School of Medicine and chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. 

He received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and completed his residency in child psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian. Dr. Axelson is board certified in child/adolescent psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology.

Prior to coming to Nationwide Children’s, Dr. Axelson served as the director of the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Services outpatient program at the University of Pittsburgh’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. He also served as a principal investigator on several National Institute of Mental Health-funded research studies. His research has focused on the phenomenology and treatment of pediatric bipolar disorder.  His treatment research encompasses both psychosocial and psychopharmacological approaches. Dr. Axelson’s phenomenological work has focused on the longitudinal course of pediatric bipolar disorder and the role of subthreshold symptoms of mania in the developmental progression of bipolar disorder.