Alison Poulton

Dr Alison Poulton is a Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics at the Sydney Medical School Nepean, University of Sydney. She is affiliated with the Brain and Mind Centre and the Charles Perkins Centre. Her primary roles include clinical work at Nepean Hospital, the Penrith Child and Youth Mental Health Service, and private practice in Penrith. She has raised a family of four children while maintaining her academic and clinical commitments.

Dr Poulton studied medicine at Girton College Cambridge and Guy’s Hospital London, qualifying in 1982. She completed advanced training in paediatrics in Australia, earning the FRACP in 1993. In 2011, she was awarded an MD from the University of Cambridge, focusing on stimulant medication effects in children with ADHD. Her research interests span ADHD pharmacology, obesity interventions, and population-level data linkage studies. She has developed the Mental Effort-Reward Imbalances Model (MERIM) to explain the overlap between ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and is currently investigating stimulant medications' long-term cardiovascular effects and their application in obesity treatment.

Her teaching emphasizes simplifying complex ADHD concepts for parents and children, using visual aids on her website (poultonadhd.com.au). Current projects include randomized trials comparing dexamphetamine and methylphenidate in ADHD treatment and assessing dexamphetamine’s role in obesity management. Planned studies focus on cardiovascular outcomes of stimulant use and qualitative insights into children’s perceptions of medication.

Dr Poulton has secured grants including the NSW Health/Rural Mental Health Partnership grant (2025) and the Brain and Mind Research Development Grant (2019). She collaborates with medical students on research projects and has advised two current students: Natalie GAUCI and Hazer KHALIFA. Her work highlights interdisciplinary approaches to healthcare challenges, addressing both clinical and systemic issues in ADHD and obesity care.