Document Actions
Professor Tom Burns
 |
Chair of Social Psychiatry
Tel: 01865 226474
Email: tom.burns@psych.ox.ac.uk
Biography
I moved to establish the new chair in Social Psychiatry and this research group at The University of Oxford in May 2003. Prior to that I had been the Foundation chair of Community Psychiatry at St George’s Hospital Medical School in Tooting London since 1994. My move into academic psychiatry came late (Senior Lecturer in 1993). After training in medicine in Cambridge and Guys I worked at Dingleton Hospital in the Scottish Borders which had been a pioneer in therapeutic community and outreach work. In London I finished my training in St Georges (including training as a Group Analyst) and after a three year spell as a consultant in Uppsala Sweden returned to work as a consultant in St Georges from 1983. My MD was in the long term outcome of anorexia nervosa in the male (remarkably similar to that in the female).
My research has been predominantly health services research – exploring the impact of differing forms of home-based care. Over time this has focused more on severe psychosis and recently I have become concerned with issues of understanding the context of service delivery and methods to identify effective and redundant components. This has begun to bring my interests full circle back to the interpersonal and interactional aspects that dominated my early training.
Research
Past research has focused on a series of differing forms of home based care including studies of home based assessment, intensive case management (the UK700 study) and assertive outreach (the PLAO study). The heterogeneity of results in many of these studies has generated further research into deconstructing them (e.g. a systematic review of home-based care and a meta-regression of these studies). Examining the success of replications and the degree to which demonstration services can survive when generalised to routine care has become a pressing national issue and one of research focuses.
Two St George's studies have now been completed:
- EQOLISE: A six country European RCT of vocational rehabilitation in schizophrenia
- ECHO a cohort study of continuity of care in schizophrenia
Current Research Projects
- Dangerous severe personality disorder - an evaluation of four national pilot sites (IDEA)
- Informal coercion in mental health: a study of "leverage" across a range of patient populations
- The impact of Community Treatment Orders on the outcome of severe mental illness: a controlled trial (ULTIMA)
Recent Research Projects
- Family burden in Indian and white UK families with a member with schizophrenia
- The experience of coercion in psychiatric admissions
- Long-term outcome of depression treated in primary care
Selected Publications
BOOKS
Burns T, Firn M (2002). Assertive Outreach in Mental Health: A manual for practitioners. Oxford University Press: Oxford
Burns T (2004) Community Mental Health Teams. Oxford University Press: Oxford
Burns T (2006) A Very Short Introduction to Psychiatry. Oxford University Press: Oxford
 |
 |
 |
2006
Singh, SP, Burns, T, (2006). Race and mental health: there is more to race than racism. British Medical Journal 333: 648-651.
van Os, J, Burns T, Cavallaro, R, Leucht, S, Peuskens, J, Helldin, L, Bernardo, M, Arango, C, Fleischhacker, W, Lachaux, B, Kane, JM (2006). Standardised remission criteria in schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 113: 91-95.
Burns, T; Christova, L; Cooper, S; Harrison, G; McKendrick, J; Laugharne, R; McCreadie, R; O’Brien, S; Obuaya, T; Perrington, S; Stephenson, D (2006) Maintenance antipsychotic medication patterns in outpatient schizophrenia patients: a naturalistic cohort study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 113: 126-134.
Burns, T; Catty, J; Wright, C (2006) Deconstructing home-based care for mental illness: can one identify the effective ingredients? Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 113 (Suppl 429): 33-35.
2005
Catty J, Goddard K, White S, Burns T (2005) Social networks among users of mental health day care Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 40: 467-474.
2004
Wright C, Catty J, Watt H, Burns T (2004) A systematic review of home treatment services. Classification and sustainability. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 39:789-796.
Jones T, Hanney S, Buxton M, Burns T (2004) What British psychiatrists read. Questionnaire survey of journal usage among clinicians. British Journal of Psychiatry 185: 251-257.
2003
Fiander M, Burns T, McHugo GJ, Drake RE (2003). Assertive Community Treatment across the Atlantic: comparison of model fidelity in the UK and USA. British Journal of Psychiatry, 182, 248-254.
Wright C, Burns T, James P, Billings J, Johnson S, Muijen M, Priebe S, Ryrie I, Watts J, White I (2003). Assertive outreach teams in London: models of operation. Pan-London Assertive Outreach Study, Part 1. British Journal of Psychiatry, 183, 132-138.
Burns, T, Eichenberger, A, Eich, D, Ajdacic-Gross, V Angst, J, Rössler,W (2003). Which individuals with affective symptoms seek help? Results from the Zurich epidemiological study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia, 108, 419-426.
2002
Catty J, Burns T, Knapp M, Watt H, Wright C, Henderson J, Healey A (2002). Home treatment for mental health problems: A systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 32, 383-401.
Burns T, White I, Byford S, Fiander M, Creed F, Fahy T (2002). Exposure to case management: relationships to patient characteristics and outcome. Report from the UK700 trial. British Journal of Psychiatry, 181, 236-241.
Burns T, Catty J, Watt H, Wright C, Knapp M, Henderson J (2002). International differences in home treatment for mental health problems: the results of a systematic review. British Journal of Psychiatry, 181, 375-382.
McCabe R, Heath C, Burns T, Priebe S (2002). Engagement of patients with psychosis in the medical consultation: a conversation analytic study. British Medical Journal, 325, 1148-1151.
2001
Harvey K, Burns T, Sedgwick P, Higgitt A, Creed F, Fahy T (2001). Relatives of patients with severe psychotic disorders: Factors that influence contact frequency. Report from the UK700 trial. British Journal of Psychiatry, 178, 248-254.
Burns T, Fioritti A, Holloway F, Malm U, Rössler W (2001). Case Management and Assertive Community Treatment in Europe. Psychiatric Services, 52 (5), 631-636.
2000
Burns T, Fiander M, Kent A, Ukoumunne O, Byford S, Fahy T, Rajkumar K (2000). Effects of case load size on the process of care of patients with severe psychotic illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 427-433.
