Research populations

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a serious neuropsychiatric disorder, affecting 1 in 100 people during their lifetime. The illness is characterised by false perceptions, most commonly auditory hallucinations (hearing voices), and false beliefs, which are usually persecutory in their nature. Furthermore, chronic schizophrenia is also associated with progressive loss of cognitive and social function related to the so-called 'negative syndrome'.

Our studies are investigating a comprehensive range of important issues in schizophrenia - the cause and treatment of auditory hallucinations, the basis for cognitive impairment and its restoration, abnormalities in social cognition, and disordered consciousness as revealed by disturbed time perception.

Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is a chronic neurodegenerative condition accounting for over two-thirds of dementias in the over-65 year population. Although memory impairment is the commonest clinical presentation in Alzheimer's disease, patients commonly have visuospatial deficits such as impaired stereopsis i.e., depth perception and motion perception. However, the underlying neural basis of such visuospatial deficits is unclear.

We have used neuroimaging as a way of exploring the neural basis of visuospatial function in Alzheimer's disease and in healthy elderly comparison subjects (HECS) during perception of stimuli involving depth and motion. Our studies have examined the brain effects of clinical treatment of patients with acetyl cholinesterase inhibitors; incorporated optimised voxel-based morphometry to examine the impact of structural atrophy on brain activation over time.

Post-traumatic stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and severely debilitating illness characterised by profound anxiety associated with continual re-experiencing of the traumatic event and pathological avoidance of reminders of the experience. Patients who have been the victim of criminal assault often resent the perpetrator of the assault, feelings which then trigger uncontrollable post-traumatic stress symptoms. Cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) can allow the victim to re-evaluate their interpretation of the crime and perception of the perpetrator so that the feelings of resentment are diminished, and psychopathology reduced.

Between 1998 and 2001, in a study funded by the John Templeton Foundation (Pennsylvania, USA), CBT with a forgiveness component was used in a group of 18 patients with PTSD. Patients underwent a pre- and post-therapy fMRI brain scan whilst performing an empathic and forgivability-judgment task. It was shown that an 'abnormal' (pre-therapy) pattern of activation to some extent 'normalised' following therapy.

Homeless

Within Academic Clinical Psychiatry we have been researching the relationships between mental illness, cognition, personality, and activity of daily living skills in individuals who are homeless. We work closely with the NHS clinical program for the homeless (Homeless Assessment and Support Team or HAST), local day treatment programs, overnight shelters, and voluntary organizations.

We have published a comprehensive review of cognitive dysfunction in homeless adults (see Spence, Stevens, & Parks, 2004) and a case study of a homeless person successfully treated for pyromania (see Parks, Green, Girgis, Hunter, Woodruff, & Spence, 2005). In addition, we have examined the relationship between childhood abuse and adult violence in homeless people (see Spence, Lee, Brown, David, Girgis & Parks, 2006), and homeless shelters and substance misuse (Pluck, Lee, & Parks, 2007).