MD Psychiatry

The University of Liverpool Division Of Psychiatry provides supervision for postgraduate students who wish to undertake research degrees in specific fields of interest. For further enquiries regarding these fields of interest please refer to the Divisional research themes below. The Division cannot provide funding support for research degrees unless specific arrangements are made with lead supervisors or the student applies through competitive and advertised posts.

Overview

We've highly active, internationally renowned research groups and, in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (2008), 80% of our research activity was rated as of international standard.

There are several outstanding research themes within Psychiatry. In General and Adult Psychiatry where Professor Christoph Lauber was appointed in late 2007, “social inclusion and exclusion of people with severe mental illness” best describes the research addressed. The research’s mission statement is “People with severe mental illness: From clinical questions to research evidence and back again”. This includes the following topics: supported employment in people with psychosis and common mental disorders, user and carer involvement in mental health care, stigma of people with mental illness, mental health services research and intervention studies. The aims of the new research group are:

• To make a significant contribution to a better understanding and treatment of people with mental illness who have complex needs,
• To significantly contribute to mental health services research, and
• To be a leading centre in translational research in mental health.

In child and adolescent psychiatry, Professor Gowers is undertaking a Department of Health funded multi-centre trial on cognitive behaviour therapy for adolescent anorexia nervosa. He leads an international collaboration to develop and field test the Health of the Nation outcome scales for children and adolescents.