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Research Units
Up one levelResearch units and projects in the Department of Psychiatry
Centre for Evidence Based Mental Health
Promoting and supporting the teaching and practice of evidence based mental healthcare
Centre for Suicide Research
The Centre is based in the University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry. Professor Keith Hawton is its Director. Professor Mark Williams also leads a research group within the Centre. The overall research programme of the Centre is focused on investigation of the causes, treatment and prevention of suicidal behaviour.
Dissemination of Psychological Treatments (CREDO-2)
The Centre for Research on Dissemination at Oxford (CREDO-2) is based in Oxford University's Department of Psychiatry. It is located in the Wellcome Building in the grounds of the Warneford Hospital, Oxford. The Centre specializes in research on the dissemination of evidence-based psychological treatments. It is funded by the Wellcome Trust and directed by Professor Christopher Fairburn. Professor Zafra Cooper is its deputy director. The Centre has only recently been established.
Eating Disorders (CREDO-1)
The Centre for Research on Eating Disorders at Oxford (CREDO-1) is based in Oxford University's Department of Psychiatry. It is located in the Wellcome Building in the grounds of the Warneford Hospital, Oxford. The Centre specializes in research on the nature and treatment of eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and allied states). It is funded by the Wellcome Trust and directed by Professor Christopher Fairburn. Professor Zafra Cooper is its deputy director. Over the past 25 years the Centre has pursued an integrated programme of research that has addressed many different aspects of eating disorders, including their diagnosis and classification, their characterisation and measurement, their distribution, aetiology and course, and most importantly their treatment. This work has had a substantial impact on the field and on clinical practice in the UK and abroad.
Experimental Psychopathology and Cognitive Therapy
Dr Emily A Holmes' work in experimental psychopathology seeks to understand the cognitive mechanisms underlying distress in psychological disorder. In particular she is interested in the impact on mental imagery on emotional processing and the impact of processing biases in the way people interpret information. Her research approach combines basic experimental research plus clinical experience in mental health. This approach uses an iterative, psychopathology-research cycle, linking experimental science and clinical innovation. This involves mapping out key features with patients, tailoring experiments on key variables in the laboratory and then delineating the theoretical implications for treatment development.
Molecular Neuropathology Group
The Molecular Neuropathology Group is headed by Professor Paul Harrison, and is based in the University Department of Psychiatry, at the Warneford Hospital. Our research is funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute and the The Wellcome Trust. We are also members of the MRC "Neurobiology of Mood Disorders" co-operative group, led by Professor Philip Cowen. Our group investigates several aspects of the molecular neuropathology and neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, especially schizophrenia and mood disorders. Most of the work is carried out on post mortem brain tissue, and utilizes a wide range of techniques which can be applied to study mRNAs and proteins therein. These include in situ hybridization histochemistry, northern blotting, PCR, RT-PCR, laser-capture microanalysis, radioligand binding, immunocytochemistry, western blotting, morphometry, autoradiography and image analysis. We also carry out genetic association studies and investigate the functional correlates of polymorphisms.
Neurobiology of Ageing
The Neurobiology of Aging Group is headed by Clare Mackay, PhD and Klaus Ebmeier, MD and is based at the University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry at the Warneford Hospital, as well as the Oxford Centres for Functional MRI of the Brain and for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research at the John Radcliffe Hospital. The group investigates the neurobiology and psychiatry of mood disorders and cognitive disorders in late life. We are interested in how illness phenotypes, including in vivo imaging patterns, are influenced by genes, life history and physical factors, both in positive (resilience) and negative (risk) terms.. The work utilizes a wide range of techniques from epidemiology, systematic clinical assessments and neuropsychological investigations to structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, blood flow imaging, functional MRI (resting and during specific task), magneto-encephalography and electro-encephalography. We are interested in induced mood as a human model of affective disorder, in transcranial magnetic and direct current stimulation, as well as deep brain stimulation. Research is funded for the next 5 years by an MRC Programme Grant ("Predicting MRI abnormalities with longitudinal data of the Whitehall II Substudy"), by a NIHR ringfenced programme within the Oxford BRC ("Enhancing brain plasticity and increasing resilience against dementia with exercise and cognitive stimulation" together with FMRIB and OHBA), and by grants from the Gordon Small Charitable Trust ("Magneto-encephalography (MEG) in Mood Disorders in Old Age", with OHBA) and Alzheimer Research UK ("Genetic liability to develop cognitive impairment/Understanding the effect of APOE on the brain" and "Evaluation of dementia specific signatures of resting networks in the brain").
Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis (O-CAP)
The aim of this new unit, led by Professor Daniel Freeman, is to advance the theoretical understanding and treatment of delusions and hallucinations. The studies carried out in O-CAP are supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Wellcome Trust, and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
OXTEXT - Improved management for people with bipolar disorder
OXTEXT is a programme of research designed to help people with bipolar disorder to manage their illness and minimise its impact on their lives. A key part of the research will be the further development and evaluation of a system of mood monitoring using mobile phone text messages (SMS) or online forms. The research will include evaluation of treatments for bipolar disorder and the extension of monitoring to include measures of physical health related to illnesses that appear to be more common in people with bipolar disorder.
POWIC
POWIC is a group of researchers, headed by the eminent psychiatrist and researcher Professor Tim Crow, whose aims are to elucidate the nature and causes of major psychotic illness (including schizophrenic and affective psychoses) with a view to improving their treatment, and to act as a fulcrum for discussion of the progress of research in this field and for the dissemination of information. Three symbiotic research directions constituting three levels of explanation are pursued in the quest for an organic basis for mental illness at POWIC: genetics, neuropathology, and neuroimaging / psychology. POWIC is currently housed in the new Prince of Wales International Centre for SANE Research within the University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry at the Warneford Hospital, that comprises laboratories for gene expression, cell culture and histopathology, and image analysis, and in the Department of Neuropathology in the Radcliffe Infirmary.
Psychological Medicine Research (PMR)
The Psychological Medicine Research Group is led by Professor Michael Sharpe and links the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh (www.pmr-edinburgh.org). The focus of the group’s research is on the improvement of understanding and treatment of symptoms in medical patients. The main methodologies used are epidemiological studies and randomised trials (Symptoms Management Research Trials) especially of complex and non-drug treatments.
Psychopharmacology Research Unit
Under the lead of Professor Philip Cowen, the Psychopharmacology Research Group has developed the use of pharmacological challenge tests to measure brain serotonin function. Dysfunction of this transmitter system is implicated particularly in mood disorders, such as major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder (sometime called manic depression), and also in other psychiatric illnesses. Our studies involve both healthy subjects and patients with such psychiatric disorders. Methods currently encompassed include neuroendocrine measures, sleep recording, molecular genetics, brain imaging, and psychological testing.
Stanley Foundation BALANCE
BALANCE and BALANCE 2 - randomised clinical trials of treatments for bipolar disorder. BALANCE is an ongoing trial of treatment for prevention of manic and depressive relapses. The trial is comparing lithium and valproate combination treatment with lithium treatment and with valproate treatment respectively. BALANCE 2 is a trial of treatment for bipolar depression. The trial will examine whether lamotrigine is safer and/or more effective than SSRI-type antidepressants. The start up phase of the trial is now underway in Oxford. BALANCE is funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute, a leading US mental health charity.
Social Psychiatry
The group has been established at the University of Oxford since May 2003 when Professor Tom Burns moved to the new position of Chair of Social Psychiatry. Since then the group has grown and successfully established itself within the Department of Psychiatry. The strength of the group lies in its diverse research interests broadly focusing on health services research and in the differing backgrounds and expertise of its members. Over the last few years, much of our work has focused on formal and informal coercion in mental health. More information about our research activities can be found here and you can meet the research team here.
Hedonia: TrygFonden Research Group
Hedonia: TrygFonden Research Group is a transnational research group led by Morten Kringelbach, based both in the Department of Psychiatry, Oxford, and at MindLAB/CFIN, Aarhus University, Denmark. The overall goal is to understand the fundamental neural mechanisms underlying human pleasure. Our current research is focused on three areas: 1) the brain networks involved in pleasure in the normal population, 2) the development of pleasure in the parent-child relationship, 3) rebalancing brain networks in clinical populations through the use of deep brain stimulation. The goal is to increase our understanding and potential treatment of a range of disorders including depression, obesity and eating disorders as well as problems of parent-child attachment.
Neurosciences - Neural Correlates of Gene Function
Dr Elizabeth Tunbridge’s research uses a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to investigate the mechanisms by which genes impact on brain function and psychiatric disorders, focusing in particular on catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT). She is currently engaged in a number of related research projects. (1) Investigating the role of COMT in hippocampal function, using behavioural, neurochemical, electrophysiological and molecular techniques. (2) Investigating the mechanism underlying a reported gene X environment interaction between COMT and cannabis use in precipitating psychosis and cognitive dysfunction. (3) Investigating the effect of a COMT inhibitor on human brain activation patterns, using MEG.
Perinatal Psychopathology and Offspring Development (pPOD)
pPOD is a group of researchers that work to understand psychological disorders affecting parents, and the effects these can have on the early development of children. There is a particular focus on the perinatal period; the time during pregnancy and in the days and weeks that follow. pPOD began at the Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, and comprises psychologists, psychiatrists and other doctors. It is jointly led by Paul Ramchandani and Susannah Murphy.
