Women Today: Changes and Challenges

The last several decades have brought enormous change to the lives of women. In addition to the health concerns that accompany being female, such as pregnancy and the postpartum, hormonal changes and menopause, women today face unprecedented pressures in balancing the demands of home and career-and the personal and family stresses that often result.

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences offers specialized mental and behavioral health services for women. Linked to the full range of resources available through the Duke University Health System, our clinicians provide comprehensive, integrated care for women confronting a variety of mental and physical health issues.

Patient Care

Our clinicians bring together expertise in a range of psychosocial and medical disciplines to provide women with outstanding care. We work closely with both primary care providers and specialists in such fields as obstetrics/gynecology to provide excellence in:

• The most effective treatments available for emotional disorders specific to women, more common in women, and/or more serious in women
• Unique therapies for other emotional disorders or health-risk behaviors that affect women differently than men
• Preventive interventions for problems that place women at high risk for developing emotional or physical disorders

 Our clinicians specialize in the following women’s behavioral health issues:

• Perinatal and reproductive psychiatry, including postpartum depression
• Premenstrual disorder
• Perimenopause
• Eating disorders
• Other women’s mental health issues