News

The New Year is a time to reset, refresh and revive goals that may have fallen to the wayside in the previous year. Yet, most New Year’s resolutions fail. Duke Psychiatry's John Mitchell, PhD, shares six tips to help keep your New Year’s resolutions on track.

A landmark NIH-funded randomized clinical trial published in JAMA provides new insights into managing acute and subacute low back pain—one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Duke Psychiatry's Francis Keefe, PhD, was a contributing author.

Professor emerita Deborah Gold, PhD, taught a Death & Dying course at Duke for more than two decades, aiming to normalize death and help students to learn how to sit with discomfort and grief. In Fall 2025, she taught the course for the last time.

A Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences team is partnering with organizations in western North Carolina to help support young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families in the wake of Hurricane Helene. The initiative is funded by the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services.

Inspired by the kaizen mindset of making small, consistent improvements, discover how staff and faculty—including Duke Psychiatry’s Jonathan Posner, MD—are approaching the new year.

Dozens of Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences faculty members and trainees received noteworthy awards and honors, published books, or took on new leadership roles in 2025:

Angel Peterchev, PhD, professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was selected as an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow effective January 1, 2026. He was honored for his contributions to device development and modeling for electromagnetic brain stimulation.

In collaboration with the directors of the School of Medicine's first-year curriculum for medical students, Rebekah Jakel, MD, PhD, transformed the psychiatry curriculum earlier this year from a traditional lecture-based format to an interactive case study approach. It’s been a refreshing change for students and the faculty who teach them.

Alexandra Bey, MD, PhD, is a child psychiatrist in the Duke Autism Clinic and a researcher in the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development. Dr. Bey’s research and clinical career is dedicated to improving the lives of those with neurodevelopmental disorders. Communications strategist Evan Watson sat down with Dr. Bey for a conversation about her career and research goals, and how her dual roles in research and patient care overlap.

Jonathan Posner, MD, has been promoted to a new role—executive vice chair in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences—effective December 1. He will also continue serving in the role of vice chair for research for the department.