Rate My Professor Trecia Wouldes

Trecia Wouldes is Professor and Head of the Department of Psychological Medicine in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. She earned her Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts in psychology in 1991, and PhD in health psychology with a focus on child development in 2001, all from the University of Auckland. Her PhD thesis examined methadone maintenance during pregnancy, investigating the consequences of low-dose versus high-dose regimens for the fetus, neonate, and infant. Following her doctorate, Wouldes joined the faculty at the University of Auckland, advancing to full professor in 2021. She supervises PhD students and coordinates courses such as PSYCHIAT 730B on early childhood mental health.

Wouldes' research centers on the developmental and behavioral impacts of prenatal exposure to substances including methamphetamine, methadone, opioids, and polysubstances, as well as neurocognitive outcomes in children born at risk of neonatal hypoglycemia or very preterm. She leads the New Zealand site of the Infant Development, Environment, and Lifestyle (IDEAL) Study, a multisite longitudinal project assessing methamphetamine-exposed infants' development in collaboration with US institutions. Additional contributions include follow-up analyses of the Metformin in Gestational Diabetes (MiG) trial offspring study and investigations into resilience factors in preterm infants and migrant youth. Her publications encompass over 100 works, with notable titles such as 'Opioid, methamphetamine, and polysubstance use: perinatal outcomes for the mother and infant' (2023, Frontiers in Pediatrics), 'Fostering Resilience to Very Preterm Birth Through the Caregiving Environment' (2022, JAMA Network Open), 'Prenatal methamphetamine—impact on the mother and child—a review' (2021, Addiction), 'Developmental and behavioral consequences of prenatal methamphetamine exposure' (2015, Current Epidemiology Reports), and 'Prenatal methamphetamine exposure and child behavioural outcomes at 5 years' (2014, Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics). Wouldes' scholarship has garnered over 5,000 citations, influencing perinatal mental health and addiction research.