Melissa Wagner, MD, PhD

Melissa Wagner, MD, PhD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Co-Medical Director of the adult inpatient psychiatric services at the University of Cincinnati. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Dr. Wagner completed her MD and PhD as a part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2012, with a scientific focus on Neuroscience. She then received the triple board certification in pediatrics, general psychiatry, and child and adolescent psychiatry through her post-graduate clinical training at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. As women live within family systems, being triple-boarded serves as a significant asset in bridging the clinical gaps between women’s mental health and child mental health.

Following residency, Dr. Wagner took an academic attending psychiatrist position as a women’s mental health inpatient psychiatrist. Through peer supervision as well as clinical and research collaborations, she gained expertise in treating women with mental illness during times of hormonal transitions, which includes before/during/after pregnancy. In addition, she acquired a wealth of knowledge in mental health disorders related to hormone changes or menstrual cycle such as perimenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and menopause, and mental health disorders related to or affecting fertility.

As a clinician-scientist, Dr. Wagner collaborates with internists, obstetricians, women’s mental health psychiatrists, and psychologists at both the University of Cincinnati and the University of Illinois Chicago, with an academic focus on developing innovative care delivery models to help improve the diagnosis and treatment of perinatal mental illness as well as researching PMDD, suicide risk, and neurosteroids.

Dr. Wagner is also clinically active in both psychiatry and pediatrics and serves as a supervising pediatrician within a Medicine-Pediatrics resident clinic at the University of Cincinnati and as the collaborative care women’s mental health and child psychiatrist in an innovative two-generation clinic within the internal medicine/pediatrics department at the University of Illinois Chicago. Mentorship is an important aspect of all her work, and she incorporates education and support of her trainees and non-psychiatric physician colleagues into her daily clinical practice.