Mental Health Science

Reflections on Patient and Public involvement (PPI) at McPin in 2016
by Thomas Kabir

This year has seen the expansion of our mental health science theme of work. We have engaged with scientists developing new treatments and testing them in research studies. Are these treatments that patients want? What are the ethical considerations of developing the treatment?

Mental Health Science

Public Involvement

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Long term impacts of medication for Bipolar
by Megan Rees

Medication side effects are a burning issue for many service users and carers.  Yet research to date has failed to accurately reflect the prevalence of the adverse events and effects resulting from long term psychiatric medication use. This is a particularly urgent issue for people diagnosed with Bipolar, as influential guidelines on its management, including those of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the British Association for Psychopharmacology, advocate the long term use of medications.

Mental Health Science

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The Inflamed Mind
by Thomas Kabir

There is a growing amount of evidence that some mental health problems may be due in part to the brain becoming ‘inflamed’. In August BBC Radio 4 broadcast a programme about this titled ‘The inflamed Mind’. You can listen to the programme by clicking here.

Mental Health Science

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Virtual Reality Helps Beat Paranoia
by Thomas Kabir

‘Paranoia’. It’s one of those words that retain their stigma despite all the good work of campaigns such as Time to Change. A reason for this might be the way that the word is used so much in everyday life.  The term your paranoid can be used as a response to so many statements.

Mental Health Science

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Genetic link to depression discovered?
by Thomas Kabir

Genetic link to depression discovered? A consortium of researchers from Oxford and China has discovered two specific regions of DNA that have been linked to depression. These findings were published in Nature in July this year. The results are some of the strongest evidence yet that genetics do indeed have some part to play in depression. Our Public Involvement in Research Manager, Thomas Kabir shares his thoughts on this exciting research in our latest blog.

Mental Health Science

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A new area of work for the McPin Foundation – mental health sciences
by Thomas Kabir

“Thomas – you need to look at a protein structure from lots of different points of view to understand how it works”. This was some of the most valuable advice I ever got when I was doing my PhD. I was studying how proteins stick to one another to form complexes at UCL in London.

Mental Health Science

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The genetics of schizophrenia
by Thomas Kabir

To say that schizophrenia is a controversial diagnosis would be putting it mildly. Almost everything relating to schizophrenia has been contested, often ferociously. Putting that to one side, there is a lot of research into schizophrenia particularly to understand causation and treatments.

Mental Health Science

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