Mental Health and Wellbeing

Mental Health and Wellbeing

The PsySTAR Programme at the University of Glasgow 

Psychiatry: Scottish Training in Academic Research

The PsySTAR Programme is funded by the Medical Research Foundation/Medical Research Council, to provide 4 year fellowships so a cohort of the UK's most able psychiatrists can undertake PhDs under the supervision of Scotland's most successful basic and clinical scientists. The four Scottish biomedical universities were awarded the funding to establish the cohort in open competition with the UK's other universities. 

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Research Group

The School of Health and Wellbeing provides a rich and supportive environment for PsySTAR fellows. It brings together the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, research groups in mental health, public health, health economics, and general practice, the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics, and Glasgow’s Clinical Trials Unit, into an interdisciplinary grouping of over 200 staff benefiting from frequent and regular seminar programmes and thematic workshops. Doctoral training is high priority, and the School has a current headcount of well over 100 research students, including many prestigious fellowships. The latest International Student Barometer Survey shows that 91.6% of students are satisfied with their experience at Glasgow while the National Student Survey reveals a 90% satisfaction rating, making Glasgow the joint top-rated University in Scotland along with St Andrews.   

Our child and adult mental health research focuses on new psychosocial interventions for common, and severe and enduring mental disorders, with trials of therapeutic and complex interventions, and epidemiology charting trajectories to determine when, where and how to intervene. We also investigate health trends and inequalities experienced by people with intellectual disabilities. Integration of technologies is improving our understanding of the interaction between social, societal and biological factors, so providing a strong foundation for research into interventions to actively redress inequalities. Our close links with the NHS, voluntary sector groups, and with Government help us to deliver research into practice.

We offer high quality supervision and training in key skills such as clinical trials methodology, epidemiology, statistics, informatics and new technologies, mental health and development, public health, health service research, and social sciences as they relate to mental health and intellectual disabilities, and also immunological techniques to investigate how biological underpinnings of disease interact with societal and environmental determinants. We do this across a range of settings; tertiary care through to health promotion/wider community access settings.

We have considerable experience and a strong culture of studying the lifecourse and determinants of mental ill-health through prospective cohort studies. For example, we have access to Scotland’s birth to death datasets of routinely collected data, are home to Generation Scotland, and numerous MRC and other funded prospective cohort studies such as the Twenty-07 cohort, the 11-16 and 16+ studies, Peers and Levels of Stress, Determinants of Adolescent Social Wellbeing and Health, and the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s study. We also have cohorts of adults with learning disabilities, adults with head injuries, and high risk adults for psychosis. Within the School, the Scottish Health Informatics Programme (SHIP www.scot-ship.ac.uk) supports an innovative mix of studies conducting health research using electronic patient records and major longitudinal cohort datasets.

PsySTAR supervisors at the University of Glasgow

Professor Jonathan Cavanagh MB, ChB, MPhil, MRCPsych, MD
Email jonathan.cavanagh@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel      0141 201-2496 
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Professor Sally-Ann Cooper BSc (Hons), MB, BS, MD, FRCPsych
Email sally-ann.cooper@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel      0141 211-0690

Dr Geoff Der MA Oxon, MSc Cardiff, MSc London
Email g.der@sphsu.mrc.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 357-3949

Professor Jon Evans BSc (Hons), DClinPsychol, PhD
Email jonathan.evans@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 211-3978
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Professor Ian Ford BSc (Hons), PhD, FISI, FRCPS (Glasg), FRCP (Edin), FRSE
Email Ian.Ford@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 330-4048

Professor Chris Gillberg MD, PhD, Knight of the Seraphim Order
Email Christopher.Gillberg@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 201-9239

Professor Andrew Gumley BA (Hons), MAppSc, PhD, CPsychol, AFBPsS
Email Andrew.Gumley@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 211-3930
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Professor Andrew Jahoda BSc (Hons), PhD, MPhil
Email Andrew.Jahoda@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 211-0282

Professor Dame Sally Macintyre BA (Hons), MSc, PhD, FRSE
Email Sally.Macintyre@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 357-3949

Professor Frances Mair MD, DRCOG, FRCGP
Email Frances.Mair@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 330-8335

Professor Iain McInnes MBChB (Hons), PhD, FRCP, FRSE
Email Iain.McInnes@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 330-8412

Professpr Hamish McLeod BA, MA (Hons), DipApplPsychol (Clinical), PhD, CPsychol, MAPS
Email Hamish.McLeod@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 211-3922

Professor Tom McMillan MAppSc, PhD, FBPsS
Email Thomas.McMillan@glasgow.ac.uk
Tel     0141 211-3938

Professor Craig Melville BSc (Hons), MBChB, MRC Psych
Email Craig.Melville@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 211-2099

Professor Helen Minnis BSc, MBChB, MSc, PhD
Email Helen.Minnis@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 201-0220
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Professor Richard Mitchell BSc(Hons), PhD
E-mail Richard.Mitchell@glasgow.ac.uk
Tel      0141 330-1663

Professor Jill Morrison MBChB, MSc, PhD, FRCGP, FAcadMed, FRCP&S, FRCP(E), FHEA, DCH, DROG
Email Jill.Morrison@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 330-8348

Professor Jill Pell MD, FFPHM, FESC
Email Jill.Pell@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tel     0141 330-3239

Professor Daniel Smith Sc, MB ChB, MSc, MD, MRCPsych
Email Daniel.Smith@glasgow.ac.uk  
Tel     0141 211 3930

Professor Chris Williams BSc (Hons), MBChB, MMed Sc, MD, FRCPsych
Email Chris.Williams@glasgow.ac.uk  

More information about PsySTAR at the University of Glasgow

For more information about PsySTAR at the University of Glasgow, please contact: Professor Sally-Ann Cooper
Email  sally-ann.cooper@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tele     0141 211-0690