Research Interests

Primary Care Mental Health, Chronic Diseases, Trial Methodology

Research Description

He started working at the UCL in 1990 as a Sir Jules Thorne Research Fellow and then as a MRC funded fellow. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in 1995 and Professor in 2002 at UCL. He has a wide range of clinical research interests and has over the years obtained funding from the MRC, the Wellcome Trust, BUPA and the National Institute of Health Research for translational clinical research activities. His primary research includes: the physical and psychological management of people with schizophrenia; the epidemiology of depression in general practice and the development of a risk algorithm for the detection of depression prior to its onset; the epidemiology and presentations of sexual dysfunction in primary care; help seeking behaviour of people with depression and unexplained medical symptoms such as dizziness in the community so as to develop an understanding of the under-treatment of depression in primary care; the evaluation of interventions designed to change professionals' clinical behaviour in primary care so as to assist the implementation of research results to clinical practice; the evaluation of health service interventions designed to improve continuity of care in people with cancer and the evaluastion of of complex intervention for the treatment of mental disorders in general practice. His methodological research interests include systematic reviews and meta analyses; the effects of participants' preferences on recruitment and outcome in randomised trials; the design and conduct of randomised trials of complex interventions and the use of large clinical databases such as GPRD and THIN for epidemiological, aetiological and health service research. He is also Scientific Director of the MRC General Practice Research Framework, the largest national general practice resource of research practices in the UK and is the Director of PRIMENT one of the 17 fully registered UK Clinical Research Collaboration Clinical Trials Unit which focuses on the design, conduct and analyses of randomised trials on primary care and mental health. His international research interests extend to current research on depression in Europe funded by the European Commission V Framework, Quality of Life Programme and primary care research in deprived areas of the Eastern Cape of South Africa supported by the British Council and the Sir Halley Stewart Charitable Trust and collaboration with India on the evaluation of chronic diseases in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine and Public Health Foundation of India. He is a part time general practitioner at a RCGP Investigator led research practice, the Keats Group Practice in Hampstead which has a focus on research.

UCL Collaborators

Professor Michael King, RD Mental Health Sciences; Professor Anne Johnson & Dr Andrew Hayward, RD Infections & Pop Health Professor Jane Wardle, RD of Epidemiology and Public Health Prof Yellon, RD of Cardiovascular Medicine

External Collaborators

Collaboration extend to key researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and MRC Population Health Units in Glasgow and London International Collaboration include that with India (i.e. SANGATH and PHFI); South Africa; Chile, University of Conception, Chile ; Europe - University of Granada, Spain; University of Lubjlana, Slovenia; University of Utrecht, the Netherlands; University of Lisbon, Portugal and University of Tartu, Estonia.

Keywords

Addiction, Cardiovascular, Clinical trials, Depression, E-health, Epidemiology, Gene expression, Health care evaluation, Hearing and balance, Infection, Primary health care, Psychosis, Public health, Research synthesis, Schizophrenia, Study design, Vestibular rehabilitation

Conditions

Anxiety disorders, Depressive disorders, Schizophrenia and related disorders, Somatoform and factitious disorders, Vertigo and vestibular disorders, Angina, Cancer, Arthritis

Methods

Epidemiology research, Psychosocial research, Systematic review, Statistics, Clinical trials, Longitudinal analysis, Clinical Research

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Publications

Teaching & Education Interests

Education Interests

Undergraduate teaching - Clinical skills, Postgrad- Evidence Based Medcine & PhD Supervision

Education Description

Doctoral supervision of PhDs in Primary care and Mental health and Post doctoral supervisions of reserach programmes