Catherine Birndorf, MD

Catherine Birndorf, MD is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics/Gynecology and founding director of the Payne Whitney Women's Program at The New York Presbyterian Hospital - Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. She is also the founder of the Women’s Mental Health Consortium, a New York area network of women’s mental health clinicians and researchers. Dr. Birndorf’s area of psychiatric expertise is in reproductive mental health, helping women with emotional distress during times of hormonal change, from menses to menopause. She specializes in treating women before, during and after pregnancy, as well as at other times of transition in their lives.

A Smith College graduate, Dr. Birndorf attended Brown University Medical School and did her psychiatry residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital (Cornell), serving as Chief Resident. She has received numerous awards and published a number of journal articles and book chapters and actively continues both writing and teaching about women’s mental health and psychiatry. Dr. Birndorf is a regular mental health columnist for SELF Magazine, and has appeared on television programs including The Today’s Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, MSNBC and CNN. She also lectures internationally, educating and advocating for women, and serves on boards of several medical organizations including the President’s Advisory Council of Postpartum Support International. With Lucy Danziger, Editor-in-Chief at SELF Magazine, she co-authored a self-help book entitled The Nine Rooms of Happiness, published March 2010.

She practices psychiatry and lives in NYC with her husband and two children.

Degree

MD

Title

Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York Presbyterian Hospital – Weill Cornell Medical Center; Private Practice Psychiatry

Clinical Appointments/Hospital Affiliation

Attending Psychiatrist, New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center

Description of Practice/Services Offered

-Psychiatric Evaluation and Consultation
-Psychopharmacology
-Psychotherapy

Areas of Research

Medications during pregnancy and lactation, postpartum spectrum illnesses and premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

Professional Education

Psychiatry Training:
1998-1999 Chief Resident, Psychiatry Payne Whitney Clinic, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
1997-1998 Resident in Psychiatry Payne Whitney Clinic, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
1996-1997 Resident in Psychiatry University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.
1995-1996 Intern in Psychiatry Payne Whitney Clinic, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
Medical School:
1991-1995 Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, RI
Post-baccalaureate pre-medical certificate:
1990-1991 Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA
College:
1984-1988 Smith College, Northampton, MA

Credentials/Board Certification

Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Psychosomatic Medicine, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Honors/Awards

2009: Voluntary Faculty Teaching Award, NYPH/Payne Whitney Clinic

2004: Selected Representative at the Sixth Annual Future Leaders in Psychiatry(Emory University School of Medicine), Palm Beach, FL

2001: Robert J. Winter Clinical Teacher Award. Presented by third year medical students at Northwestern University Medical School to one outstanding teaching faculty in each department.

2000: Robert J. Winter Clinical Teacher Award. Presented by third year medical students at Northwestern University Medical School to one outstanding teaching faculty in each department.

1999: George Ginsberg/AADPRT Fellowship Award for Excellence and Accomplishments in the Areas of Education and Teaching

1999: Association of Women Psychiatrists/Wyeth-Ayerst Fellowship Award for excellence in and commitment to womens health

1999: Senior Psychiatry Residents Award for Leadership and Service at The New York Presbyterian Hospital, Payne Whitney Clinic, New York, NY

1995: Awarded the American Medical Womens Association, Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Achievement Citation for Scholastic Achievement

Publications

  1. Cumberbatch CJ, Birndorf C, Dresner N: Psychological Implicatons of High-Risk Pregnancy in International Journal of Fertility, 50(4):180-186, 2005
  2. Nuzzarello A, Birndorf C: An Interviewing Course for a Psychiatry Clerkship. Academic Psychiatry, 28:1, Spring 2004
  3. Birndorf C, Kaye M: Teaching the Mental Status Examination to Medical Students Using a Standardized Patient in a Large Group Setting, Academic Psychiatry, 26:3, Fall 2002
  4. Birndorf C, Madden A, Portera L, and Leon A: Psychiatric Symptoms, Functional Impairment, and Receptivity toward Mental Health Treatment among Obstetrical Patients, International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, Vol. 31(4) 369-379, 2001
  5. Osborne L, Birndorf C, Szodsky L, Wisner K: Returning to Tricyclic Antidepressants for Depression during Childbearing: Clinical and Dosing Challenges (accepted for publication, 2014)
  6. Birndorf C, Sacks A: Chapter 13: Psychological Issues. Women’s Health for Life, Dorling Kindersley Publishers, London, Spring 2009
  7. Birndorf C, Sacks, A: To Medicate or Not: The Dilemma of Pregnancy and Psychiatric Illness, Perinatal and Postpartum Mental Health, Springer, Ed. By Stone and Menkin, 2007

_ Contact_____________________________________________________________________

Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry
New York Presbyterian Hospital (Cornell)
200 E. 87th Street, Suite 12-E
New York, NY 10128

Phone:
Fax:

Appointment Scheduling: Call

Office Hours: Monday-Thursday, 8:30AM - 6PM

Insurances Accepted/Managed Care Accepted: None privately (but some insurances accepted through the Women’s Clinic services)