Psychological Medicine

Head of Discipline
Professor G Malhi
Location
Northern Clinical School

The Medical Psychology Unit is an independent research group which conducts research into psychological aspects of medical illness. The Unit works in conjunction with a number of Medical School Disciplines including Experimental Medicine, Medicine and Psychological Medicine, and is linked to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Royal North Shore Hospital.

Areas of research

Opportunities are available to engage in research courses in all of the areas below. The nine basic research themes within the Discipline of Psychological Medicine are:

Eating Disorders
Associate Professor Jan Russell and Professor Stephen Touyz run a large eating disorders and research program through the Dieting Disorders Centre, linking the various clinical facilities affiliated to the University.

Human Brain Science
Dr Evian Gordon runs a Cognitive Neuroscience Unit at Westmead Hospital assessing brain function in a number of psychiatric disorders. Associate Professor O'Sullivan runs a PET and fMRI neuroimaging research unit facility at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and also conducts research at Concord Hospital.

Affective Disorders
Professor Gordon Johnson heads a collaborative research program in mood disorders at Concord Hospital and the Mood Disorders Unit at Northside Clinic. Special interests involve clinical psychopharmacology and ECT.

Stress and Psychosomatic Research
Professor Chris Tennant, Professor Stewart Dunn and Dr Phyllis Butow at Royal North Shore Hospital have a research department embracing stress research and the broad area of psychosomatic research with particular emphasis on psycho-oncology. Professor Philip Boyce, at Nepean Hospital, is also heavily involved in psychosomatic research.

Perinatal Research
Professor Philip Boyce at Nepean Hospital and Professor Chris Tennant at Royal North Shore have research interests in psychosocial aspects of mother-infant mental health, especially postnatal depression and infant development.

Psycho-Oncology and doctor-patient communication
The Medical Psychology Unit has particular expertise in psychological aspects of cancer and aspects of doctor-patient communication, such as informed consent decision support tools, patient interventions to promote participation in the consultation, and doctor communication skills training.

Psychiatry of Old Age
Professor John Snowdon conducts research in nursing homes and on depression in old age. Dr Robert Llewellyn-Jones runs a healthy ageing research unit at Hornsby Hospital researching later life depression and challenging behaviours in dementia.

Psychopharmacology / or Drug and Alcohol Research
Dr Glenn Hunt runs a psychopharmacology laboratory at Concord Hospital and is interested in the effects of drugs of abuse on brain function. Renee Bittoun runs a smoking research unit involved in nicotine addiction and its treatment. Dr Stephen Jurd is head of Drug and Alcohol Services at Royal North Shore Hospital and is involved in researching anti-craving drugs on outcomes in alcoholism.

Rural Health
Research is being undertaken in isolated rural communities assessing the efficacy of psychiatric education, delivered by visiting psychiatrists to health care staff.

PhD Program
A seminar program for our PhD students, covering the basic tools for psychiatric research is now in place.

Contact details

For general enquiries:

Ms Danielle Seesink
Phone: +61 2 9926 8276
Fax: +61 2 9926 7730
E-mail:

Professor G Malhi
Head of Discipline

Phone: +61 2 9926 7746
Fax: +61 2 9926 7730
E-mail: