.
Addictions The Addictions Department specialises in research into tobacco, alcohol and opiate addiction policy and treatment. In March 2010 the addiction research unit and the sections of alcohol research, tobacco research and behavioral pharmacology were brought together to form the current The Addictions Department, also known as the National Addiction Centre (NAC).
Biostatistics and Health Informatics The Department of Biostatistics & Health Informatics develops quantitative methodology as applied to mental health research, with significant national and international collaborations. The Department is organised into two research groups: Biostatistics and Health Informatics. The Biostatistics team specialise in five core areas: prediction modeling and personalised medicine, causal evaluation, psychometrics and measurement, lifecourse research, and mental health clinical trial statistics. The Health Informatics team focuses on leveraging translational bioinformatics for complex diseases using diverse data sources—such as genomics, electronic health records, and wearable technology.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry The department is dedicated to the study of
developmental disorders such as
ADHD,
clinical depression,
autism and
learning difficulties. The department has close links with the
Michael Rutter Centre for Children and Young People at the Maudsley Hospital which has a number of specialist services for children and adolescents.
Forensic Mental Health Science Forensic Mental Health Science is the study of antisocial, violent, and criminal behaviours among people with
mental disorders. The department's research focuses on antisocial behaviour as it appears in people with either major mental disorders or
personality disorders. The department is closely allied to the Forensic Psychiatry Teaching Unit.
Neuroscience Researchers in this department carry out a range of studies into diseases such as
Alzheimer's disease and
motor neuron disease. The Institute of Psychiatry now houses the
Medical Research Council Centre for Neurodegeneration Research, where pioneering research is conducted investigating disease of the
CNS. The Department of Clinical Neuroscience in Windsor Walk also contains the MRC London Neurodegenerative Disease Brain Bank.
Department of Neuroimaging and Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences is the site of the institute's Clinical Neuroimaging Department. The Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences (CNS) is a joint venture of the King's College London Institute of Psychiatry and the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLAM). Completed in early 2004, the centre provides an interdisciplinary research environment. The Clinical Neuroimaging Department, situated at the
Maudsley Hospital, provides a full range of neuroradiographic imaging services, including
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Within the CNS, the academic Department of Neuroimaging's Major Research Facility (MRF) manages a range of MRI facilities for research studies. The Department of Neuroimaging also runs an EEG laboratory, re-launched in 2010.
Psychology The IoPPN Psychology department was founded in 1950. The department conducts research in
neuropsychology,
forensic psychology, and
cognitive behavioural therapy.
Hans Eysenck set up the UK's first qualification in
clinical psychology in the department, which has now evolved into a three-year doctoral 'DClinPsych' qualification. Clinically, members of the department offer expert services to the
Maudsley Hospital,
Bethlem Royal Hospital,
King's College Hospital,
Guy's Hospital and community mental health teams in the South London area. Members of the department also teach psychology to undergraduate medical students from the
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals. Psychiatric geneticist
Peter McGuffin was awarded a fellowship at the institute.
Psychological Medicine The Department of Psychological Medicine, headed by Professor
Trudie Chalder, addresses many of the commonest
mental disorders which affect adults including
depression,
anxiety,
post traumatic stress disorder,
eating disorders,
somatoform disorders, and
medically unexplained symptoms and syndromes. Its research spans basic science, experimental medicine, epidemiology and public policy. It includes the King's Centre for Military Health Research, led by the department's former chair, Professor Sir
Simon Wessely, and is responsible for studying the psychological impacts of the 2003
Iraq War. The department also contains a programme of work on
liaison psychiatry and studies the many complex interactions between mental and physical illness.
Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry The SGDP centre is a multi-disciplinary research centre devoted to the study of the interplay between "nature" (genetics) and "nurture" (environment) as they interact in the development of complex human behaviour. Research at the SGDP acknowledges that there is no simple solution to the "
nature versus nurture" debate; instead, expertise is combined across fields such as social
epidemiology, child and adult
psychiatry,
developmental psychopathology, development in the family, personality traits,
cognitive abilities, statistical genetics, and
molecular genetics. In this way it is hoped that a greater understanding can be achieved in risk factors that might predispose an individual to depression, ADHD, or autism.
History The MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre was founded in 1994 by the
Medical Research Council, in partnership with the
Institute of Psychiatry (now a school of King's College London). The research in social, genetic and developmental psychiatry have already existed at the Institute of Psychiatry since its establishment in 1948. However, the streams of research were not integrated and there have even been times when genetic researchers and social psychiatrists were in a state of hostility. It is one of the leading neuroscience institutes in the world. The Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute focuses on the development of new treatments to patients affected by
neurodegenerative diseases (such as
Alzheimer's disease,
Parkinson's disease and
motor neurone disease),
mental disorders (
depression,
schizophrenia) and
neurological diseases (including
epilepsy and
stroke), and the understanding of disease mechanisms. The research institute has 250 clinicians and research scientists from neuroimaging, neurology, psychiatry, genetics, molecular and cellular biology and drug discovery. The current three major goals of the institute is to determine the underlying genetic and environmental risk factors for disease, to identify tests for early diagnosis and biomarkers that measure disease progression, and to develop informative cellular and animal disease models of disease to accelerate drug discovery. ==Funding==