Tim Whitfield

Research Interests

My research interests include extending our understanding of risk factors (biological, psychological and lifestyle) for the progression of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) to mild cognitive impairment and/or dementia.

I am also evaluating the potential of a psychosocial intervention, mindfulness, to reduce the risk of this disease progression in older adults. Mindfulness has been shown to successfully ameliorate established risk factors for cognitive decline (namely, anxiety) in other populations, and therefore holds potential to attenuate disease progression risk in SCD.

Links to associate labs, centres and facilities

First PhD supervisor: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychiatry/people/walker

Second PhD supervisor: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychiatry/research/mental-health-older-people-department/marchant-lab

Dave Vago’s (current collaborator) lab: http://davidvago.bwh.harvard.edu/contemplative-neuroscience-and-integrative-medicine-cnim-laboratory/

Consortium project homepage: https://silversantestudy.eu/

Funder’s homepage: https://dunhillmedical.org.uk/

Publications and achievements

I gratefully acknowledge PhD funding from the Dunhill Medical Trust, under RTF1806\45.

Publications

Stanley, K., Whitfield, T., Kuchenbaecker, K., Sanders, O., Stevens, T., Walker, Z. Rate of Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's Disease Stratified by Age. J Alzheimers Dis. 2019 May 20. doi: 10.3233/JAD-181047.

Marchant, N.L., Barnhofer, T., Klimecki, O.M., Poisnel, G., Lutz, A., Arenaza-Urquijo, E., et al. The SCD-Well randomized controlled trial: Effects of a mindfulness-based intervention versus health education on mental health in patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD). Alzheimers Dement (N Y). 2018;4:737-45.

Sadiq, D., Whitfield, T., Lee, L., Stevens, T., Costafreda, S., & Walker, Z. (2017). Prodromal Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease: A Comparison of the Cognitive and Clinical Profiles. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 58(2):463-470. doi: 10.3233/JAD-161089.

Colledge, L., Whitfield, T., & Walker, Z. (2017). Dopamine Transporter Imaging. In K. Kosaka (Ed.), Dementia with Lewy Bodies: Clinical and Biological Aspects (pp. 141-155). Springer.

Walker, Z., Moreno, E., Thomas, A., Inglis, F., Tabet, N., Stevens, T., Whitfield, T., Aarsland, D., Rainer, M., & Padovani, A. (2016). Evolution of clinical features in possible DLB depending on FP-CIT SPECT result. Neurology. Sep 6;87(10):1045-51. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000003076.

Azam, B., Whitfield, T., Radford, D., Dontham, S., Stevens, T., Dannhauser, T., & Walker, Z. (2016)

Trends in referred patient profiles in a memory clinic over 20 years. Dementia (London). Jul;15(4):789-97. doi: 10.1177/1471301214539691.

Fonseca, J., Ducksbury, R., Rodda, J., Whitfield, T., Nagaraj, C., Suresh, K., Stevens, T., & Walker, Z. (2015). Factors that predict cognitive decline in patients with subjective cognitive impairment. International Psychogeriatrics. Oct;27(10):1671-7. doi: 10.1017/S1041610215000356.

Dannhauser, T., Cleverley, M., Whitfield, T., Fletcher, B., Stevens, T., & Walker, Z. (2014). A complex multimodal activity intervention to reduce the risk of dementia in mild cognitive impairment–ThinkingFit: pilot and feasibility study for a randomized controlled trial. BMC Psychiatry. 14:129. doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-14-129.

Ducksbury, R., Whitfield, T., & Walker, Z. (2014). SPECT/PET Findings in Lewy Body Dementia. In A. Otte, R.A. Dierckx, E.F.J.de Vries, & A. van Waarde (Eds.), PET and SPECT in Neurology (pp. 373-416). Springer.

Tim Whitfield

Research Interests

Links to associate labs, centres and facilities

Publications and achievements

Contact details