Loading
JK![]()
author
John Kruse
John Kruse, M.D., Ph.D., is a neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and author of the book, “Recognizing Adult ADHD: What Donald Trump Can Teach Us About Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Di...view moreJohn Kruse, M.D., Ph.D., is a neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and author of the book, “Recognizing Adult ADHD: What Donald Trump Can Teach Us About Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.” With 25 years of psychiatry experience, Dr. Kruse specializes in treating adults with ADHD.
Dr. Kruse grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where he received an excellent public school education. As a youth, he discovered his lifelong passion for biology and the natural sciences while participating in the Future Scientist program at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Banding hawks and owls, traveling to see thousands of migrating Sandhill Cranes, and learning about the flora and fauna of northeast Ohio inspired his respect for, joy in, and curiosity about the natural world.
After graduating Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from the University of Rochester, he remained in Rochester to complete his medical degree and to earn a Ph.D. in neuroscience with a dissertation on circadian rhythms. While at Rochester he also helped design early research using bright lights to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder, and he assisted in establishing The Journal of the University of Rochester Medical Center. He moved to San Francisco in 1990, completing a psychiatry residency at UCSF and receiving an Outstanding Resident in Psychiatry award from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Dr. Kruse realized that his strength as a psychiatrist lay in his ability to think about and help individuals with mental health conditions at multiple levels ranging from brain chemistry, to whole body health, to intra-psychic, interpersonal and socio-political aspects. He consequently nurtured a practice where he continues to employ a variety of therapeutic approaches. In addition to direct patient care, he has taught basic psychopharmacology to psychotherapy interns for 25 years, and has spoken at local, state, and national psychiatry conferences about gay marriage, gay families, and the biology of emotions. In 1994, one of his first patients, a man in his mid-forties with classic ADHD symptoms who had been told that adults couldn’t have the condition, launched Dr. Kruse on the road to learning more about adult ADHD. More than 300 patients over the next 25 years contributed to furthering this journey, teaching him how to recognize ADHD; treat it effectively with talking therapies, medications, exercise, diet, and meditation; and help patients deal with partners, families, co-workers, and teachers who did not grasp how ADHD affects individuals. For the last decade, Dr. Kruse has supplemented his direct clinical knowledge by being a member, and eventually co-leader, of a local group of psychiatrists focused on treating adult ADHD.
When he’s not treating patients, John is an avid runner who has completed 100 marathons. He also trained several hundred novice runners to complete a marathon while coaching for the AIDS Marathon Training Program. For over a decade he was an editor and columnist for The FootPrint, San Francisco FrontRunners’ monthly newsletter. John and his husband are parents of thriving twin teenage girls. He continues to enjoy birdwatching, nature photography, gardening, and baking.view less