Professor Christopher Dickens

About me:

Background

Chris trained at the Westminster Hospital Medical School in London, qualifying in 1986. Following qualification he spent a number of years doing clinical medicine in London, Humberside and Manchester, during which he obtained his MRCP qualification. He then switched to psychiatry and completed his basic psychiatric training in Manchester.

With his ongoing interest in clinical medicine, he moved naturally to the interface between medicine and psychiatry. He completed his PhD on the psychiatric problems in people with chronic low back pain whilst simultaneously completing his higher clinical training as a liaison psychiatrist. Since that time he has worked mostly researching the causes, effects and treatments of emotional problems in people with chronic physical illness, across a variety of setting in primary and secondary care.

He moved to the University of Exeter College of Medicine and Health in July 2011 to take up the Chair of Psychological Medicine, where he has continued to focus on the development and evaluation of interventions to improve the management of common mental disorders in people with chronic physical illnesses.

Broad research specialisms include

Assessment of depression and anxiety among people with long term physical health problems in primary and secondary care

Identifying risk factors for depression and anxiety in people with comorbid medical illnesses and multimorbidity, including understanding the role of perseverative negative cognitive processes and negative cognitive biases in contributing to depression and anxiety.

Understanding the impact of such depression and anxiety on physical and psychological outcomes, among people with medical illnesses.

Designing and evaluating complex interventions for depression and anxiety through clinical trials in primary and secondary care

Systematic reviewing and meta analysis.

Interests:

Depression and anxiety are common among people with long term conditions, such as coronary heart disease and diabetes. These problems not only adds to people unhappiness but are associated with adverse health outcomes, such as increased mortality, increased morbidity, worse quality of life, and increased healthcare utilisation. Consequently, getting appropriate and effective treatments for depression and anxiety to people with long term conditions has been prioritized in the NHS and healthcare systems overseas. Adequate treatment of depression and anxiety has proved challenging however due to low rates of detection, reluctance to give / accept appropriate treatments and limited efficacy of available treatments.

The aim of Professor Dickens' research is to improve the mental health of people with long term physical health conditions. He is interested in evaluating existing treatments through trials and systematic reviews, developing and evaluating novel interventions and exploring the barriers to implementing successful treatment strategies.

Qualifications:

MB BS, University of London, 1986

MRCP, Royal College of Physicians, UK, 1990

MRCPsych, Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993

MSc, University of Manchester, 1996

PhD, University of Manchester, 1999