Research Programs & Areas

Brain image overlaid on laptop (stock photo)

Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences is a national leader in basic, clinical and translational research. 

We’re committed to discovering and understanding mental health conditions, finding new ways to identify and treat mental health conditions, investigating effective disease prevention strategies, and ultimately applying and disseminating our research to improve the mental health of individuals, families and communities.

Our faculty, staff and trainees conduct a broad range of behavioral and mental health research, including:

  • Understanding the causes, consequences and treatments of addictive behavior
  • Integrating psychosocial, behavioral and biomedical sciences to understand, prevent and treat disease
  • Using innovative technologies and tools to investigate brain function
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of public behavioral health interventions
  • Conducting clinical trials of new psychotherapies and medications for mental health conditions, including anxiety and mood disorders
  • Uncover psychiatry condition mechanisms, novel biomarkers and candidate treatments of central nervous system disorders
  • And much more …

Explore our research programs and areas to learn more about how we’re building new knowledge to improve the mental health and well-being of children, adolescents and adults locally, nationally and across the world.