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Jeannie Beckham, PhD, came to Duke Psychiatry in 1989 as a postdoctoral fellow in pain management. Thirty-five years later, she's a tenured professor conducting research in the department and the Durham VA, with nearly 50 grants and 450+ publications to her name. Beckham also co-leads the department's Division of Behavioral Medicine.

A study led by Duke University medical student Dana Rubenstein reveals a complex cycle between substance use and pain. Researchers, including Duke Psychiatry's Joseph McClernon, PhD, and Maggie Sweitzer, PhD, found that pain can drive substance use, and substance use can worsen pain. This cycle can result in a perpetual pain loop for the one in five Americans who experience chronic pain.

The Duke Center for Autism & Brain Development recently co-sponsored a first-of-its-kind conference to bring together interdisciplinary panels of researchers, clinicians, families, and patients affected by FOXP1 syndrome. FOXP1 results in significant developmental delays and is strongly correlated with autism.

Duke Psychiatry's Kaf Dzirasa, MD, PhD, and his team focus on how genetic variants interact with environmental factors to lead to mental illness. He's also interested in how mechanisms in neural circuits underpin emotional behavior. He aims to design a pacemaker for the brain that can regulate the electrical signals underlying mental disorders.

The number of Americans using both cannabis and tobacco is increasing, with a particular surge among older adults, a new study finds. Researchers at Duke University School of Medicine who analyzed two decades of national data warn that the combination poses greater health risks than the dangers of using either substance alone.

An estimated one life was saved for every 17 times an extreme risk protection order—known as ERPOs or “red flag laws"—removed guns from people who presented a risk of harming themselves or others, according to an analysis of the laws in four states, led by Duke Psychiatry's Jeffrey Swanson, PhD.

Throughout her life, actor Melissa Gilbert has recoiled at the sounds of gum chewing and other everyday sounds—but she was well into adulthood before she discovered why she found these noises so distressing. Gilbert has misophonia, a disorder characterized by unusually strong sensitivity and reactivity to a particular trigger sound. She recently partnered with Zach Rosenthal, PhD, director of the Duke Center for Misophonia & Emotion Regulation, creating a brief video to promote awareness, provide hope, and invite people to help fund misophonia research and advocacy. 

Deborah Koltai, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry, neurosurgery, and neurology, helped organize the first East African Women’s Leadership Consortium at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi, Tanzania. A dozen women, representing universities and research facilities from Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya, participated in the workshop, which was funded by the Duke Global Health Institute.

Behind every electronic medical record is a human being with feelings, a story, and a voice. “Untold Stories” is a narrative medicine project on display at Duke University School of Medicine. Born out of a desire to connect more deeply with patients at the Duke Outpatient Clinic, internal medicine-psychiatry resident Jeffrey Lee, MD, created the initiative that blends storytelling and photography to uncover the personal experiences behind medical records.

Two new National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grants—a $1.1 million R25 awarded to Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and a $1.7 million T32 awarded jointly to Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and North Carolina Central University—will provide much-needed support toward filling critical gaps in research training opportunities in mental health and developmental neuroscience.