jameskirkbride

I am a psychiatric epidemiologist interested in the causes of schizophrenia and other major psychotic disorders from an environmental perspective. I am a member of the EpiCentre group within the Department of Psychiatry. I am particularly interested in the interplay between genes and environment to lead to the onset of psychosis via disruption of neurobiological pathways. My current research involves investigating the incidence of psychotic disorders in East Anglia – an area with marked variation in deprivation, immigration and urbanicity. Little is known about the burden of psychotic disorders in rural areas and this study – the Social Epidemiology of Psychoses in East Anglia [SEPEA-link] – will provide important information in this regard. The study will provide the sample of cases which feed into a collaborative EU Framework Programme grant to study the interaction between genes and environment in the onset of psychoses – the EU-GeneEnvironment [EU-GEI-link] Interaction case-control study.

May 2013