ABOUT DR. KATIE Unverferth
Dr. Unverferth is a board-certified psychiatrist and nationally recognized expert in Reproductive Psychiatry and Women’s Mental Health. She treats adults across the reproductive lifespan, with particular expertise in premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), postpartum psychosis, mood changes related to infertility or loss, and perimenopausal depression and anxiety.
Dr. Unverferth combines her work in academic medicine with a select private practice in Santa Monica. She serves as Director of the UCLA Women’s Life Center, Medical Director of the UCLA Maternal Mental Health Program, and Assistant Clinical Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Her private practice offers thoughtful, highly individualized psychiatric care, informed by her specialized clinical experience and current research. She takes time to understand each patient’s circumstances and goals, shaping treatment around their unique needs.
Dr. Unverferth lectures regularly on Reproductive Psychiatry and Women’s Mental Health, including topics such as depression in pregnancy, postpartum depression, PMDD, and perimenopausal mental health. She teaches psychiatry residents and fellows at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and serves as a Faculty Lead of the UCLA Women’s Mental Health Concentration. She is also faculty with the National Curriculum for Reproductive Psychiatry (NCRP), where she co-created its educational modules on PMDD. She co-created the psychiatry arm of the UCLA Comprehensive Menopause Program and co-authored the chapter on Premenstrual Mood Syndromes in the APA Textbook of Women’s Reproductive Mental Health. In recognition of her work in psychiatric education, she was awarded the UCLA Department of Psychiatry Teaching Award.
Dr. Unverferth’s expertise has been featured in CNN, NPR/AirTalk, National Geographic, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and Women’s Health, as well as other national and international media.
Dr. Unverferth graduated from Duke University, where she majored in Chemistry with a concentration in Mathematics. She completed research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute with the National Children’s Study. She attended medical school at Georgetown University. While there, she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and received the Francis L. Clark, Jr. Award for Excellence in Psychiatry.
She completed her Psychiatry Residency at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior where she served as the Chief Resident in Reproductive Psychiatry. She subsequently completed the UCLA Mood Disorders Fellowship, receiving advanced training in the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. During residency, she was elected to the local council of the American Psychiatric Association and later served as the Early Career Psychiatrist representative on the Southern California Psychiatric Association Council, where she received the President’s Award for service.
In addition to Reproductive Psychiatry, Dr. Unverferth treats generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, insomnia, and ADHD.
Dr. Unverferth's publications, lectures, and teaching are on the Scholarship page. Media coverage of her work is on the Press page.
