Children and Young People's Mental Health Catalyst Seminar

Title: TBC

Speakers:

• Professor Argyris Stringaris, UCL Division of Psychiatry - Talk title: What is youth depression and what to do about it: proposals for inter-disciplinary work at UCL
• Professor Trevor Smart, UCL Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology - Talk title tbc

Professor Argyris Stringaris abstract: According to the World Health Organisation, depression is the leading cause of disability for adolescents. Yet, we only have a rudimentary understanding of the mechanisms underlying depression and many challenges have arisen concerning its measurement and validity. I propose that this owes partly to the insularity of the field and the lack of genuine inter-disciplinary work. I will try to give an overview of what I believe to be promising areas of collaboration with basic science, engineering, but also with the humanities.

Biography: Argyris Stringaris will start work at UCL in January 2022 as Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He was a Senior Investigator and Chief of Section at NIMH/NIH in the USA until December 2021, and before that a Senior Lecturer and Wellcome Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, KCL. His work focuses on conceptual and mechanistic questions around human mood and ways to measure and change it.

The UCL Catalyst seminar series is intended to spark fresh thinking and debate, featuring cutting-edge UCL research relevant for children and young people’s mental health and facilitating new connections between scientists working in different disciplines.