Joanna Moncrieff, BmedSci, MBBS, MSc, MD, MRCPsych

Contact details: UCL, Department of Mental Health Sciences (Bloomsbury Campus) 67-73 Riding House Street 2nd Floor, Charles Bell House London W1W 7EJ Tel 01277 302695 Fax 01277 302696 j.moncrieff@ucl.ac.uk

Brief Biographical Details:

I obtained my medical degree at University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1989 and then trained in psychiatry at St George’s Hospital, London. I worked there with Colin Drummond on research in alcohol problems and later at the Institute of Psychiatry with Simon Wessely and members of the Cochrane Collaboration on antidepressant trials. I did an MSc in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1996-7. I completed my SpR training on the Charing Cross rotation.

I was appointed as a senior lecturer at UCL in 2001 in the section of Social and Community Psychiatry. I am an honorary consultant in rehabilitation psychiatry at North East London Mental Health Trust.

I am co chair person of the Critical Psychiatry Network, (www.criticalpsychiatry.co.uk) which is a group of psychiatrists from around the United Kingdom who challenge conventional biomedical models of psychiatric practice. We have submitted evidence to several government enquiries on the Mental Health Act and pharmaceutical industry and have organised academic meetings and symposia.

Current Research

Drugs: I have published several critical reviews and meta-analyses of evidence for psychiatric drugs including lithium, antidepressants, drugs for alcohol problems and clozapine. I have recently been engaged in some theoretical work outlining different theoretical models of how psychiatric drugs might work. I have criticised orthodox disease based models and proposed an alternative “drug-centred” model. I am also investigating the consequences of reducing and stopping psychiatric medication including supersensitivity psychosis and withdrawal induced relapse.

History and qualitative research: I have done research on the history of psychiatry, including the history of psychiatric drugs. I am conducting a qualitative research project into patients conceptions about antidepressants and experiences around stopping them and plan further qualitative work on antipsychotics.

Social policy and politics of psychiatry: I am also reviewing social science literature on the social functions of psychiatry and examining how recent developments in psychiatry reflect social and political changes.

Selected Publications:

• Books:
  Moncrieff J. (2008) Author of "Myth of the Chemical Cure," published in paperback from September 2009 by Palgrave Macmillan:
  http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=283273
• Moncrieff J. (2009) A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs (Straight Talking Introductions).
  PCCS Books; Ross-on-Wye
• Book chapters:
• Moncrieff J. (2008) Neoliberalism and biopsychiatry: a marriage of convenience. In Liberatory Psychiatry. Eds C. Cohen & S. Timimi, CUP: Cambridge, 235-257.
• Papers:
• Moncrieff J. (2009) A critique of the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia and psychosis. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 17; 214-225.
• Moncrieff J, Cohen D, Mason J. (2009)  The subjective experience of taking antipsychotic drugs. Acta Psychiatr Scand. Feb 12 [epub ahead of print].
• Moncrieff J & Cohen D (2009) How do psychiatric drugs work?
  British Medical Journal May 29;338:b1963. doi: 10.1136/bmj.b1963.
• Moncrieff J. (2007) Co-opting psychiatry : the alliance between academic psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry. Epidemiology Psychiatric Society ; 16, 192-6. 
• Moncrieff J. & Cohen D. (2006) Do antidepressants cure or create abnormal brain states? PloS Med July 2006 ; 3(7) e240.  No abstract available.
• Moncrieff J. (2006) Does antipsychotic withdrawal provoke psychosis?  Review of the literature on rapid onset psychosis (supersensitivity psychosis) and withdrawal-related relapse. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia July 2006 pp1-11.
• Moncrieff J, Kirsch I (2005) Efficacy of antidepressants in adults. BMJ 331, 155-157.
• Moncrieff J, Cohen D (2005) Rethinking models of psychotropic drug action. Psychother.Psychosom. 74, 145-153.
• Moncrieff J (1999) An investigation into the precedents of modern drug treatment in psychiatry. Hist Psychiatry 10, 475-490.
• Moncrieff J, Pomerleau J (2000) Trends in sickness benefits in Great Britain and the contribution of mental disorders. J.Public Health Med. 22, 59-67.
• Moncrieff J (1997) “The medicalisation of modern living” Soundings, Summer 1997, 63-72.

This page last modified 9 June, 2009 by [d.dsouza@ucl.ac.uk]