Rate My Professor Sarah Romans

Professor Sarah Romans, FRANZCP, is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, Faculty of Medicine, Health Sciences Division. She earned her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) and Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Otago, graduating from medical school in 1971. A Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, her career trajectory includes service in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, Dunedin, from 1988 to 2012. From 2003 to 2005, she held a professorial position at the University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Returning to Otago, she joined the Wellington campus, where she was appointed full professor effective 1 February 2011 and later became Acting Head of Department.

Sarah Romans specializes in academic psychiatry with extensive research in women's mental health across the life cycle, encompassing mood and menstrual cycle interactions, sexuality in women with schizophrenia, psychological and physical sequelae of intimate partner violence and childhood abuse, bipolar affective disorder's familial impacts, and legal abortion for mental health indications. Her epidemiological work on child sexual abuse covers prevalence, long-term impacts, coping and defense styles, tattoos association, perpetrators, risk factors for adolescent pregnancy, self-esteem, and social, interpersonal, and sexual functioning. Further interests include bipolar disorder relapse prevention, overweight and obesity determinants, prevalence, familial and seasonal patterns, lithium effectiveness, and life events; psychiatric morbidity in women regarding prevalence, risk factors, smoking, social networks, and help-seeking behaviors; domestic violence perpetrators; sexual assault long-term effects; autonomy in psychiatry; community treatment orders; teenagers in transition; osteoarthritis pain; menarche psychosocial factors; sterilization reversal; handicapped child impact on parents; and community attitudes towards the mentally ill alongside general practice views. Key publications comprise the book Women's Mental Health. A Life Cycle Approach (2005), Mood and the Menstrual Cycle (2012), "Child sexual abuse and later disordered eating: A New Zealand epidemiological study" (2001), "Childhood abuse and functional medical disorders in women: An epidemiological study" (2002), "Prevalence of Childhood Sexual Abuse Experiences in a Community Sample of Women" (1993), and "Uses of Community Treatment Orders in New Zealand: Early Findings" (2001). Her 86 publications have accumulated 6,458 citations.