The National Curriculum in Reproductive Psychiatry

About  |  Leadership  |  Module Leaders  |  Contributors 

About

The National Curriculum in Reproductive Psychiatry is the joint work of dozens of volunteer clinician-educators from across the country. It was conceived in 2013 at the Biennial Perinatal Mental Health meeting, when a group of academic psychiatrists came together to present a symposium on the current state of education in reproductive psychiatry. In the wake of that symposium, the presenters formed the National Task Force on Women’s Reproductive Mental Health, with an agenda to research the current state of education in reproductive psychiatry and move toward national standards.

Since that symposium in 2013, the National Task Force has conducted two surveys of residency directors and fellowship directors , to assess the current state of education in the field. We have identified six core knowledge areas for specialists in this area:

• Relationship between reproductive cycle stages and psychopathology
• Epidemiology, pathophysiology, and phenomenology of psychiatric disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum, including pharmacokinetic changes
• Treatment of perinatal disorders, including but not limited to psychopharmacology
• Psychiatric symptoms related to infertility, pregnancy loss, birth trauma, and delivery of offspring with major health problems
• Premenstrual mood disorders
• Symptoms related to perimenopause

In the course of our research, it became apparent that few residency programs were teaching much about reproductive psychiatry, and that the major barriers to teaching more included lack of qualified faculty and lack of time (because reproductive psychiatry is not a required ACGME specialty). It was also clear that residency programs would be unlikely to pay for a curriculum for a non-ACGME specialty, and that other groups of learners (advanced-practice nurses, psychiatrists in general practice, obstetrician-gynecologists, and residents in other fields such as pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, and family medicine) would also benefit from this training. We therefore set out to create an interactive, web-based national curriculum, based on our competency guide, that could serve three purposes:

• To provide materials to be used in the classroom using non-expert facilitators, which could be freely adopted by any residency program in any specialty
• To provide self-study materials for trainees or doctors in general practice to learn materials on their own
• To provide rigorous CME assessments that, if taken together, could represent an examination of a trainee’s knowledge in the entire field of reproductive psychiatry and, with an eye toward certification and eventual sub-specialty recognition

In 2017, the National Task Force merged its curriculum efforts with those of the Marce of North America (formerly the Perinatal Mental Health Society), which had simultaneously been working on a fellowship-level curriculum.  Together we have created a curriculum that can be used in a modular fashion for residency education, and in its entirety as a fellowship curriculum.  Our first six modules were piloted in 9 residency programs in 2018-2019, with the remainder piloted in 2019-2020.

The NCRP has won numerous educational awards, including the Educational Innovator Award from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Excellence in Education (2018) and the Scholarship in Teaching Award  from Case Western Reserve University (2019).  It is currently funded through a Faculty Innovation in Education Award from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Leadership

The National Curriculum in Reproductive Psychiatry is a joint effort of the National Task Force on Women’s Reproductive Mental Health and Marce of North America. It is led by the following individuals:

Lauren M. Osborne, MD

Lauren M. Osborne, MD

Weill Cornell Medicine
Chair, National Task Force on Women’s Reproductive Mental Health
Board, Perinatal Mental Health Society
Sarah Nagle-Yang, MD

Sarah Nagle-Yang, MD

University of Colorado School of Medicine
Vice Chair, National Task Force on Women’s Reproductive Mental Health
Kelsey Hannan, BA

Kelsey Hannan, BA

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Project Manager

Module Leaders

Each module is led by an expert in reproductive psychiatry; the leaders below have made this curriculum possible with their dedication, effort, and diligence.

  • Stephanie Davis, PA-C, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Pissburgh Magee-Womens Hospital

  • Julia R. Frew, MD, The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

  • Priya Gopalan, MD, University of Pittsburgh
  • Gina Grinstead, CRNP-PMH, JHU Student Health and Well-Being Johns Hopkins University

  • Neha Hudepohl, MD, University of South Carolina

  • Lucy Hutner, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Phoebe
  • Nicole Leistikow, MD, University of Maryland
  • Erin Murphy-Barzilay, MD, University of California Los Angeles
  • Sarah Nagle-Yang, MD, University of Colorado

  • Lauren M. Osborne, MD, Johns Hopkins University

  • Julia Riddle, MD, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina Center for Women’s Mood Disorders

  • Lindsay R. Standeven, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Clinical And Education Director, The Johns Hopkins Reproductive Mental Health Center

  • Robin Valpey, MD Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Medical Director, Center for Counseling and Cancer Support, Director of Student Mental Health Services, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine,
  • Sujin Lee Weinstein, PharmD, MEdHP, BCPP, Clinical Pharmacist, Psychiatry

Contributors

The work on this curriculum has been accomplished by a large group of volunteers, all of whom are specialists in reproductive psychiatry at institutions around the country.

  • Vivien Burt, MD, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

  • Lisa Catapano, MD, George Washington University

  • Jody Glance, MD, University of Pittsburgh
  • Connie Guille, MD, Medical University of South Carolina
  • Caitlin Hasser, MD, University of California, San Francisco

  • Jenn Hyer, OB-GYN, University of Colorado/Denver Health

  • Andrea Favini, MD, University of Pittsburgh

  • Margo Nathan, MD, Harvard Medical School

  • Sarah Debrunner, MD, University of Pittsburgh

  • Ran Zhao, MD, Johns Hopkins University

  • Elizabeth Albertini, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

  • Maureen Curley, PhD, APRN, Case Western Reserve University

  • Katie Thorsness, MD, University of Minnesota

  • Kara Brown, MD

  • Shelly Kucherer, MD, University of Pittsburgh

  • Mimi Levine, MD

  • Katherine McEvoy, MB BCh

  • Jeanne Coulehan, CNM, Columbia University

  • Surya Sabhapathy, MD, University of Illinois at Chicago

  • Susan Hatters-Friedman, MD, University Hospitals Cleveland

  • Jyoti Sachdeva, MD, University of Cincinnati

  • Christie Urquhart, MD, University of Pittsburgh

  • Joy Moel, PhD, University of Iowa

  • Alyson Gorun, MD, Columbia University

  • Marley Doyle, MD, University of Nebraska

  • Lulu Zhao, MD, University Hospitals Cleveland

  • Katherine Unverferth, MD

  • Sharvari Shivanekar, MD, University of Pittsburgh

  • Soudabeh Givrad, MD, Stanford University

  • Jessica Coker, MD, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

  • Joshua Kleiner, LGPC, NCC

  • Jessica Holliday, MD, University of California

  • Joanna V. MacLean, MD, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

  • Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH, University of North Carolina

  • Crystal Clark, MD, MSc, Northwestern University

  • Laura Miller, MD, Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital and University of Illinois College of Medicine
  • Leena Mittal, MD, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
  • Eydie Moses-Kolko, MD, University of Pittsburgh

  • Margo Nathan, MD, Brigham & Women’s Hospital

  • Lindsay Standeven, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
  • Ellie Williams, MD, Stanford University

  • Julia Frank, MD, George Washington University

  • Saira Kalia, MD, University of Arizona

  • Priyanka Amin, MD, University of Pittsburgh

  • Neeta Shenai, MD, University of Pittsburgh

  • Gioia M. Guerrieri, DO, FAPA, Well-Minded, LLC

  • Melisa Olgun, Wesleyan University

  • Marley Doyle, MD, University of Nebraska

  • Samantha Latorre, MD, University of Maryland

  • Milena Smith, MD

  • Madhu Rao, MD, Georgetown University

  • Jaina Amin, MD, University Hospitals Cleveland

  • Allyce K. Jones, APRN, University of Utah

  • Geetha Shivakumar, MD, UT Southwestern

  • Celeste St. John-Larkin, MD, University of Colorado

  • Leena Mittal, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

  • Meredith Spada, MD, University of Pittsburgh

  • Susan Karabell, MD, Weill Cornell Medicine

  • Lauren Augello, MD, Boston University

  • Premala Jones, PhD

  • Madhavi Latha Nagalla, MD, Pine Rest Mental Health Services

  • Courtney Erdly, BA