Honorary Consultant Adult Psychiatrist & Professor in Psychopharmacology

 The research of my group is designed to improve the understanding and treatment of clinical depression which in 2000 cost the UK nine billion pounds, mainly through the morbidity of recurrent illness. Our aims are two fold; first, to improve the effectiveness of current pharmacological and psychological treatments through translational research in neuroscience; second, to seek ways of preventing depression in “at risk” young people. The methods involved in our translational research include brain imaging and neuropsychological probes directed towards the processing of emotional information. In young people we are exploring neural and biochemical markers of vulnerability to depression as well as the use of nutritional interventions such as folic acid to prevent the onset of clinical depression in those at high risk of illness.

I trained in medicine at the University College in London and then in psychiatry at Kings College hospital. I came to Oxford to work in the MRC Unit of Clinical Pharmacology under the David Grahame-Smith who was the first to identify the crucial role of tryptophan hydroxylase in the synthesis of serotonin.

Since 1983 I have been MRC Clinical Scientist and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in the department of Psychiatry in Oxford. I was elected to a personal chair in Psychopharmacology in the University in 1997 and to a fellowship of the academy of Medical Sciences in 2001. My main interests are in the biochemistry and the treatment of mood disorders, particularly the pharmacological management of depression.

 Dr Ann Sharpley

Clinical Trial Manager

I’m Ann Sharpley and I first started working in the Department of Psychiatry after completing a degree in Biology. I then studied for my PhD in 1991 under the supervision of Professor Cowen looking at the effects of drugs altering brain serotonin function on sleep. This was followed by a 4 year Junior Research Fellowship at Worcester College. I have continued to work in the Department of Psychiatry, in both Neurosciences and Wellcome Building publishing papers resulting from many research projects. This has included sleep studies in normal volunteers and also in people with depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease and primary insomnia. A portable EEG cassette system allows participants to be ‘wired up’ and sent home to sleep as usual. This increases acceptability to participants and allows me to go home to my bed! Sleep is very sensitive to the effect of drugs and even a single dose of many drugs can have a significant effect on different stages of sleep. Some drugs have their own ‘sleep fingerprint’, for example, most antidepressants reduce the amount of REM (dreaming) sleep.

 Dr Sarah McTavish

 Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist & Clinical Research Fellow

I am an honorary Consultant Psychiatrist and Research Fellow in the Department of Neurosciences.  I completed my clinical psychiatric training in Oxford and first worked with  the Neuroscience group in 1990.  Since that time, my research has been focussed on the investigation of monoamine function in affective disorder.  With support from the MRC, I developed a method for investigating the role of the monoamine, dopamine, in the brain.  My post doctoral research has been focussed on applying this and other techniques to the study of dopamine and its role in the symptoms and treatment of depression.

 Mrs Rena Hockney 

Senior Mental Health Research Nurse

I’m Rena Hockney and I am a Mental Health Nurse working in the field of research. I get involved in many different projects that happen in Neurosciences, which can include chatting to people about their problems, administering questionnaires, taking physical measures like blood samples or measuring height and weight and generally looking after our volunteers before, during and after a research study.

We have many different studies happening on our unit at any one time, all involving many different things including taking vitamins / herbs, medications, computer tests, monitoring sleep patterns and even brain scanning! All our studies are carried out to help us understand more about the human brain, how it works, what happens when it does not work and why this should occur. The more we can understand, the more we can try to help people who suffer from mental health problems by looking at more effective treatments to help people feel better and our work may even help prevent people from developing mental health problems in the first place. Basically we are looking for answers and want to help make people suffering with mental health problems feel better.

I think this is really important work which is why I have been involved in it for the last twenty years!

Currently we are looking at ways to help protect young people aged between 14-20 who might be at risk of developing mood problems as they get older by using a vitamin supplement. If you would like to find out more about this or any other aspects of our work please don’t hesitate to contact us.

 Dr Zola Mannie

Hi there,

My primary research is aimed at investigating biological and psycho social vulnerability markers of depression, that is, which risk factors may be reliable markers to predict who will and will not develop depression. Specifically, I am interested in whether those at familial risk of depression would be significantly different from those at low risk of depression in a range of cross sectional measures such as cortisol production and individual differences in personality, cognitive styles and perception of life events as well as in emotional processing, both behaviourally and using functional neuroimaging techniques. I am also following up this cohort of young people to ascertain whether any of these measures would be predictive of who would develop depression. I am ultimately interested in identifying trait markers of depression which might form a basis for suitable prevention strategies.