News

After a national search, assistant professor Nicole Helmke, MD, was promoted to director of the internal medicine-psychiatry (med-psych) residency program, effective November 15. 

A research team led by Duke University’s David Goldston, PhD, and UCLA’s Joan Asarnow, PhD, is investigating how to improve care and outcomes among youth during and after emergency department (ED) visits for suicidal risk or behaviors.

In July, the Carolina Theatre in Durham started a Sensory Friendly Awareness Film Series in partnership with the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development. It's a free, monthly movie-going event, created specifically for children and adults with autism and other neurodivergent people.

Three senior psychiatry residents—Jordan Broadway, MD, Jonathan Nahmias, MD, and Hania Ibrahim, MD—developed and are delivering a workshop to teach second-year medical students in their psychiatry clerkship how to conduct a psychiatric interview.

Damon Tweedy, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Jeffrey Baker, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics and history, recently delivered the Trent Humanities in Medicine Lecture about a largely forgotten incident at Duke that drew national scrutiny and attention to the issue of segregated medical care in the 1950s.

Researchers including Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences postdoctoral associate David Murphy, PhD, have discovered that eye movements can be decoded by the sounds they generate in the ear, a finding that reveals hearing may be affected by vision.

In recognition of the valuable contribution the Duke Center for Misophonia and Emotion Regulation is making to demystify misophonia and help those who suffer from it, Duke has received a new $1.25 million, five-year gift from an anonymous family that builds on their previous commitment, which established the Center in 2019.

Children in North Carolina's foster care system often end up sleeping in emergency departments or county Department of Social Services (DSS) offices because of the scarcity of foster homes and residential treatment facilities. In response to these challenges, the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences is taking action to address the mental health crisis and help foster children build support and resilience for finding a new home.

Duke Psychiatry researchers found in a recent study that chronic pain isn’t just associated with tobacco or cannabis use, but often both. The study’s analysis of 32,014 adults showed those who reported a tough week of moderate to severe pain were twice as likely to use tobacco and 1.5 times more likely to cope with cannabis. Those in pain were almost three times as likely to report both tobacco and cannabis use. 

As psychedelics forge a path from counterculture to clinics, School of Medicine researchers—including Kathryn Walder-Christensen, PhD, and William Wetsel, PhD, are learning how these powerful substances impact the brain. This includes research using hallucinogenic fish and mice to understand the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for conditions such as anxiety and PTSD. A central question: Is the “trip” part of healing?