General Psychiatry
The Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in Nottingham is one of the UK’s leading interdisciplinary mental health research institutes. General Adult Psychiatry research in the IMH focus on mood disorders, psychosis, mental health with physical health, recovery, suicide, dual diagnosis, psychological, pharmacological, neuromodulation and digital interventions.
Academic Clinical Lecturers
Paul Briley
"I am a Clinical Assistant Professor (Clinical Lecturer) in General Adult Psychiatry. Prior to studying Medicine, I trained in Experimental Psychology, Mathematics and Statistics.
"I am studying ways to boost the effectiveness of transcranial magnetic stimulus (TMS) - an increasingly popular, non-invasive, brain stimulation (neuromodulation) treatment for depression and anxiety disorders. In particular, I am examining using a second neuromodulation technique to modify the "brain state" at the time of TMS stimulation - ensuring the brain is in a receptive state for receiving TMS to maximise the effects of TMS. My goal is to increase the number of patients who can benefit from TMS, and increase the speed at which patients improve."
For more about Paul’s research, please see an overview of Paul's research on ORCID.
Paul Briley
Research themes
The major research themes of the IMH are through its centres of excellence in Mood Disorders, Translational Neuroimaging, Mental Health and Human Rights, Social Futures and Recovery, and Health and Justice. Mental Health and Technology is a core theme in the Nottingham NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. There is expertise in transcranial magnetic stimulation and other neuromodulation, MRI, EEG, MEG and magnetic spectroscopy, informatics, virtual reality sensing, developing novel therapeutic interventions, exploring underlying disease mechanisms of and large scale epidemiological studies.
In addition, Mental Health and Well-being is a theme in the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East Midlands. Moreover, the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a centre for Mindfulness, recovery network, specialist depression service, bipolar group psychoeducation and a national gender dysphoria service.
The IMH was 8th in terms of research power in psychology and neuroscience in the 2021 University Research Excellence Framework (REF).
Current academics
The IMH currently has four NIHR Senior Investigators (Professors Morriss, Hollis, Orrell and Sayal) of which there are only 200 in all disciplines in England. The academic staff in General Adult Psychiatry include:
- Professor Richard Morriss (Professor of Psychiatry and Community Mental Health)
- Professor Peter Liddle (Professor of Psychiatry)
- Professor Jon Arcelus (Emeritus Professor in Mental Health and Transgender Health)
- Professor Mike Slade (Professor of Mental Health Recovery and Social Inclusion)
- Professor Peter Bartlett (Professor of Mental Health Law)
- Profesor Justine Schneider (Professor of Mental Health and Social Care)
- Dr Maddie Groom (Associate Professor)
- Dr Elizabeth Liddle (Associate Professor in Translational Mental Health)
- Dr Neil Nixon and Dr Mohammed Zia Katshu (Clinical Associate Professors)
- Dr Karthik Thangavelu and Dr Sudheer Lankappa (Consultant Psychiatrist and Honorary Assistant Professors)
- Dr Katy Jones, Dr Elena Nixon and Dr Michael Craven (Assistant Professors)
- Dr Boliang Guo (Lecturer in Medical Statistics)
- Dr Michael Craven (NIHR MindTech Senior Research Fellow)
Current research grants
Current research grants are funded by the NIHR, research councils (MRC, ESRC), European Union and industry.
Current research grants in General Adult Psychiatry include:
- Randomised double-blind controlled trial of connectivity guided theta burst TMS versus rTMS for treatment resistant moderate to severe depression: evaluation of efficacy, cost effectiveness and mechanism of action (NIHR EME; £2.1 million).
- NIHR MindTech and In-Vitro Centre Adult Mental Health Theme (NIHR; £1,359,127).
- Multicentre Research Programme to Enhance Return to Work after Trauma (ROWTATE) (NIHR: £2,498,589).
- Aripiprazole/ sertraline combination: Clinical and cost-effectiveness in comparison with quetiapine for the treatment of bipolar depression. An open label RCT. (ASCEnD). (NIHR HTA; £1,818,197).
- ADEPP: Antidepressant for the prevention of depression following first episode psychosis trial. (NIHR; £2,087,138).
- TaRGeTS: Targetting the role of glutamate/glutathione in the treatment of schizophrenia. (BMA; £63,950).
More information
More information about Academic Psychiatry is available on the IMH website. You may contact the Academic Programme Director for Psychiatry, Dr Anto Rajamani, for further details.
Contact Anto Rajamani