The mission of the Center for Reproductive Mental Health is to improve the lives of those who are affected by psychiatric illnesses related to the reproductive life cycle. The center’s goals are: One, to alleviate the distress caused by depressive and anxiety symptoms and two, to prevent these conditions in future generations. We work to accomplish these goals through expert consultations, therapeutic interventions, teaching, research, and outreach. We strive to lead the way for an interdisciplinary understanding of caring for those with mood and anxiety disorders.
About Mood and Anxiety Disorders
Major depression is nearly twice as common in women as in men, with a lifetime occurrence of the illness as high as 21 percent in women compared with 12.7 percent in men. Although bipolar disorder is equally common in men and women (affecting about one percent of both over a lifetime), bipolar depressive episodes occur more often in women. Moreover, research suggests that, at least in some women, reproductive-related hormonal changes help raise the risk of depressive episodes.
While menstruation, pregnancy and menopause do not, by themselves, appear to increase the risk of a mood disorder, women with mood illness have a greater chance of relapse if they’re untreated at these times.
The Center for Reproductive Mental Health was established to study these problems and provide expert evaluation of women who suffer their symptoms.