The Commission will mobilise policy change, translate evidence into accessible narratives, and personalise what often can seem like abstract statistics. Women’s mental health must be understood as a fundamental human right across the life course, and we all stand to gain from its prioritisation and improvement.
Dr Marisa Casanova Dias, Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer in Women's Mental Health at King’s College London
09 March 2026
King's to co-lead first Lancet Psychiatry Commission on Women's Mental Health
Researchers will co-lead a new Lancet Psychiatry Commission on Women’s Mental Health.
This is the first global initiative to systematically connect biology, social context and clinical care for women’s mental health across their entire life course, and to translate that knowledge into actionable change, using precision psychiatry as its central framework.
The multidisciplinary Commission will be co-led by Dr Marisa Casanova Dias, Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, and Livia De Picker, Professor of Immunopsychiatry at University of Antwerp. It will bring together clinicians, researchers, policymakers and women with lived experience as equal partners.
It aims to establish a new, evidence-based standard for women-centred mental health care that reflects both scientific progress and the realities of women’s lives with targeted recommendations for clinicians, researchers, policymakers and medical educators. Women’s experiences will be highlighted through public engagement on the MIAMENTAL website.
Women’s health has been historically under-researched. Despite bearing a disproportionate burden of common mental disorders, women remain under-represented in clinical trials, sex-disaggregated analyses are inconsistent, and differences in pharmacokinetics, hormonal changes, and treatment response are rarely integrated into practice. Adverse consequences which are increasingly recognised include women’s pain and psychological distress being dismissed or normalised, resulting in delayed diagnosis, poor healthcare and outcomes.
Women carry a disproportionate burden of mental health disorders. They live longer than men, yet spend more years in poor health, with a large share of years lived with disability attributable to mental disorders. Globally, women are around 1.5–2 times more likely than men to experience depression and anxiety, and an estimated one in four women will face a mental disorder in her lifetime.
These increased mental health risks mostly cluster around key biological and social transitions — puberty, the perinatal period, menopause, and older age — and are compounded by knowledge and resource gaps in mental health care. Current psychiatric frameworks, education and guidelines remain poorly aligned with the realities of women’s bodies and lives.
Recognising the importance of every stage of life, the Commission will take a lifespan approach around six key stages: prenatal and early development, pre-puberty childhood, adolescence, adult reproductive years, midlife and older age. For each stage, the Commission will emphasise how biology, context and care interact over time, rather than treating these domains in isolation.
Read more about the Commission
For more information, please contact Michele Harris-Tafri (School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences Communications Manager)