Dr. Shari I. Lusskin

Shari I. Lusskin, MD, specializes in psychiatry in New York. Dr. Lusskin is a pioneer in reproductive psychiatry and a renowned expert in perinatal psychopharmacology and the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric conditions related to the female reproductive life cycle.

Dr. Lusskin cares for women with neurobiological conditions related to the menstrual cycle, fertility treatments, pregnancy, the post-partum period, and perimenopause — issues she believes are underdiagnosed and undertreated.

“Hormones such as estrogen and progesterone play critical roles throughout women’s reproductive life cycle,” she explains.

“Because these neuroactive steroids affect both the brain and the rest of the body, when women go through hormonal changes — before their periods and during fertility treatments, pregnancy, and menopause — they can experience anxiety, mood changes, and other psychiatric effects.”

She treats patients with medications and/or talk therapy, depending on their individual circumstances.

“Talk therapy can affect brain chemistry, so it is sometimes adequate for addressing mood and anxiety symptoms related to hormonal shifts,” she says. “Some conditions, however, require pharmacotherapy for effective treatment.”

In private practice since 1990, Dr. Lusskin works closely with each patient to develop a comprehensive treatment plan. She is also dedicated to training fellow clinicians around the world.

Many of Dr. Lusskin’s patients are referred to her by the medical specialists she consults for: OB/GYNs, endocrinologists, family doctors, and others.

Dr. Lusskin serves as a clinical professor of psychiatry, obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, as well as an attending psychiatrist at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

She is also the director of psychopharmacologic agents at the nonprofit Reproductive Toxicology Center. The center operates REPROTOX®, a database of the effects of medications, chemicals, infections, and physical agents on pregnancy, reproduction, and breastfeeding on fetal and child development.

She is a Fellow of both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Dr. Lusskin earned her medical degree at New York University School of Medicine in New York City. She completed an internship in medicine, neurology, and psychiatry and a three-year psychiatry residency at NYU Langone Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital Center.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Dr. Lusskin is from a family of physicians. Her grandmother was one of the first female physicians to train at Bellevue Hospital, and both her father and grandfather were doctors.

She has lectured and mentored physicians around the world, and in 2019, she gave the first talk in Russia about perinatal psychopharmacology.

Dr. Lusskin founded the Reproductive Psychiatry Program at the NYU School of Medicine, where she served on the faculty through 2012. She also founded — and continues to lead — the Mount Sinai Reproductive Psychiatry Journal Club.

She serves as an ad hoc reviewer for nearly 20 academic journals, including the American Journal of Psychiatry, International Journal of Mental Health, Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, British Journal of Psychiatry, Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, and Journal of Women’s Health.