Professor Scott Weich
School of Health and Related Research
Professor of Mental Health
s.weich@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 0856
+44 114 222 0856
+44 222 0749
(Fax)
Regent Court (ScHARR)
Full contact details
Professor Scott Weich
School of Health and Related Research
Regent Court (ScHARR)
30 Regent Street
Sheffield
S1 4DA
School of Health and Related Research
Regent Court (ScHARR)
30 Regent Street
Sheffield
S1 4DA
- Profile
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I moved to ScHARR in October 2016. Before then I was Professor of Psychiatry at Warwick Medical School (from 2003 to 2006) and Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School (now UCL) from 1996 to 2003. I trained in Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, and I worked as a researcher and later as a Clinical Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry.
Throughout my career, I have always combined research and teaching with clinical practice, and I am currently an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in the North Recovery Team, Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust.
Current and recent projects
- Acute Day Units as Crisis Alternatives to Residential Care
- Co-applicant
- NIHR Health Service Research Delivery programme £820,915 (2016-2018)
- Evaluating Use of Patient Experience Data to Improve Inpatient Mental Health Care
- Chief investigator
- NIHR Health Service Research Delivery programme £719,525 (2015-2017)
- Evaluating Community Treatment Orders in England Using the Mental Health Minimum Dataset
- Chief investigator
- NIHR Health Service Research Delivery programme £391,641 (2016-17)
- Understanding the increasing rate of involuntary admissions in NHS Mental Health Care
- Chief investigator
- NIHR Health Service Research Delivery programme £220,487 (2012-2014)
- Acute Day Units as Crisis Alternatives to Residential Care
- Research interests
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My research interests include psychiatric epidemiology, namely the distribution, causes and consequences of mental disorders. I have published on the socio-economic, ethnic, gender and spatial variation in rates of the most common mental disorders, anxiety and depression. I am also interested in positive mental health and specifically the measurement and epidemiology of mental wellbeing.
I have a particular interest in observational and mixed methods research, and the use of secondary data to answer questions (such as the harms associated with treatment) that cannot be readily addressed, for example, by clinical trials alone. I have been involved in important pharmaco-epidemiological research that has demonstrated harms associated antidepressants, anxiolytic and hypnotics drugs, and melatonin.
I contributed to the UK Adult Psychiatric Morbidity (APMS) surveys in 2000, 2007 and 2014.
I have undertaken studies of compulsion in psychiatry, particularly trying to understand the reasons for increasing use of the Mental Health Act over the past two decades. I am currently leading a study designed to study outcomes associated with Community Treatment Orders using routine national patient-level data.
Other interests include co-production the ways that patient experience data are collected and used in clinical settings, helping parents with mental health problems and the application of technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of NHS mental health care.
- Publications
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Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
Journal articles
- The association between first-episode psychosis and abnormal glycaemic control: systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(11), 1049-1058.
All publications
Journal articles
- Effectiveness of non-specialist delivered psychological interventions on glycemic control and mental health problems in individuals with type 2 diabetes : a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 16(1). View this article in WRRO
- The Penrose hypothesis in the second half of the 20th century : investigating the relationship between psychiatric bed numbers and the prison population in England between 1960 and 2018-2019. British Journal of Psychiatry.
- Improving sleep quality leads to better mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 60. View this article in WRRO
- Time trends in access to smoking cessation support for people with depression or severe mental illness: a cohort study in English primary care. BMJ Open, 11(12).
- Acute day units in non-residential settings for people in mental health crisis: the AD-CARE mixed-methods study. Health Services and Delivery Research, 9(18). View this article in WRRO
- Readmission after discharge from acute mental healthcare among 231 988 people in England: cohort study exploring predictors of readmission including availability of acute day units in local areas. BJPsych Open, 7(4). View this article in WRRO
- Effects of ethnic density on the risk of compulsory psychiatric admission for individuals attending secondary care mental health services: evidence from a large-scale study in England. Psychological Medicine. View this article in WRRO
- Social prescribing for people with complex needs : a realist evaluation. BMC Family Practice, 22(1). View this article in WRRO
- A comparison of clinical outcomes, service satisfaction and well-being in people using acute day units and crisis resolution teams: cohort study in England. BJPsych Open, 7(2).
- Indicators of dementia disease progression in primary care: An electronic health record cohort study. European Journal of Neurology.
- Feasibility study of real-time online text-based CBT to support self-management for people with type 1 diabetes: the Diabetes On-line Therapy (DOT) Study. BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, 9(1).
- A review and analysis of the components of potentially effective perinatal mental health interventions for infant development and mother-infant relationship outcomes. Development and Psychopathology. View this article in WRRO
- Understanding the experience of initiating community-based group physical activity by people with serious mental illness: a systematic review using a meta-ethnographic approach. European Psychiatry. View this article in WRRO
- Understanding increasing rates of psychiatric hospital detentions in England : development and preliminary testing of an explanatory model. BJPsych Open, 6(5).
- Markers of dementia-related health in primary care electronic health records. Aging and Mental Health. View this article in WRRO
- Is social media use associated with children's well-being? Results from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Journal of Adolescence, 80, 73-83. View this article in WRRO
- Using patient experience data to support improvements in inpatient mental health care: the EURIPIDES multimethod study. Health Services and Delivery Research, 8(21), 1-338. View this article in WRRO
- How do recovery-oriented interventions contribute to personal mental health recovery? A systematic review and logic model. Clinical Psychology Review, 76. View this article in WRRO
- Use of community treatment orders and their outcomes: an observational study. Health Services and Delivery Research, 8(9), 1-76. View this article in WRRO
- Adult mental health provision in England : a national survey of acute day units. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1). View this article in WRRO
- Does nature make us happier? A spatial error model of greenspace types and mental wellbeing. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science. View this article in WRRO
- A spatial analysis of proximate greenspace and mental wellbeing in London. Applied Geography, 109. View this article in WRRO
- Moving beyond randomized controlled trials in the evaluation of compulsory community treatment. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. View this article in WRRO
- Prevalence of non-suicidal self-harm and service contact in England, 2000–14: repeated cross-sectional surveys of the general population. The Lancet Psychiatry, 6(7), 573-581. View this article in WRRO
- A virtual agent to support individuals living with physical and mental comorbidities : co-design and acceptability testing. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(5). View this article in WRRO
- Experiences of in-patient mental health services: systematic review. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 214(6), 329-338. View this article in WRRO
- Authors' reply. British Journal of Psychiatry, 214(1), 52-53.
- Affective instability in those with and without mental disorders: A case control study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 241, 492-498. View this article in WRRO
- Evaluating the effects of community treatment orders (CTOs) in England using the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS): Protocol for a national, population-based study. BMJ Open, 8(10). View this article in WRRO
- The relationship between greenspace and the mental wellbeing of adults: A systematic review.. PLoS One, 13(9). View this article in WRRO
- A realist approach to the evaluation of complex mental health interventions. British Journal of Psychiatry, 213(2), 451-453. View this article in WRRO
- Realist Evaluation of the Use of Patient Experience Data to Improve the Quality of Inpatient Mental Health Care (EURIPIDES) in England: study protocol. BMJ Open, 8(6). View this article in WRRO
- Size and clustering of ethnic groups and rates of psychiatric admission in England. BJPsych Bull. View this article in WRRO
- Maudsley Debate: Has the Mental Health Act had its day?. BMJ, 359. View this article in WRRO
- Variation in compulsory psychiatric inpatient admission in England: a cross-classified, multilevel analysis. Lancet Psychiatry, 4(8), 619-626. View this article in WRRO
- A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Green Space Prevalence and Mental Wellbeing in England. BMC Public Health, 17(Supp 1). View this article in WRRO
- Evaluating sustainability: a retrospective cohort analysis of the Oxfordshire therapeutic community. BMC Psychiatry, 16(1). View this article in WRRO
- Authors' reply. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 209(6), 528-529.
- Melatonin, hypnotics and their association with fracture: a matched cohort study. Age and Ageing, 45(6), 801-806.
- The association between first-episode psychosis and abnormal glycaemic control: systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(11), 1049-1058.
- Rates of voluntary and compulsory psychiatric in-patient treatment in England: an ecological study investigating associations with deprivation and demographics. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 209(2), 157-161.
- Fitness predicts long-term survival after a cardiovascular event: a prospective cohort study. BMJ Open, 5(10), e007772-e007772. View this article in WRRO
- Mental well-being: An important outcome for mental health services?. British Journal of Psychiatry, 207(3), 195-197.
- Interventions to improve therapeutic communications between Black and minority ethnic patients and professionals in psychiatric services: Systematic review. British Journal of Psychiatry, 207(2), 95-103.
- Aggression in children with behavioural/emotional difficulties: seeing aggression on television and video games. BMC Psychiatry, 14(1). View this article in WRRO
- Preliminary studies of the ICD-11 classification of personality disorder in practice. Personality and Mental Health, 8(4), 254-263.
- Investigating the influence of African American and African Caribbean race on primary care doctors' decision making about depression. Social Science & Medicine, 116, 161-168.
- Estimated verbal IQ and the odds of problem gambling: a population-based study. Psychological Medicine, 44(8), 1739-1749.
- Effect of anxiolytic and hypnotic drug prescriptions on mortality hazards: retrospective cohort study. BMJ, 348.
- THERACOM: a systematic review of the evidence base for interventions to improve Therapeutic Communications between black and minority ethnic populations and staff in specialist mental health services. Systematic Reviews, 2(1).
- The relationship between happiness and intelligent quotient: the contribution of socio-economic and clinical factors. Psychological Medicine, 43(6), 1303-1312.
- Ethnic inequalities in the use of health services for common mental disorders in England. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 48(5), 685-692.
- The population impact of common mental disorders and long-term physical conditions on disability and hospital admission. Psychological Medicine, 43(5), 921-931.
- Cross cultural evaluation of the Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale (WEMWBS) -a mixed methods study. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 11(1), 27-27. View this article in WRRO
- Evaluating the responsiveness of the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS): Group and individual level analysis. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 10(1), 156-156. View this article in WRRO
- The contribution of work and non-work stressors to common mental disorders in the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. Psychological Medicine, 42(04), 829-842. View this article in WRRO
- Increased Prevalence of Insomnia and Changes in Hypnotics Use in England over 15 Years: Analysis of the 1993, 2000, and 2007 National Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys. Sleep, 35(3), 377-384.
- In England, a peak in poor mental health in middle-aged people is present only among low-income households. Evidence Based Mental Health, 15(1), 8-8.
- Experiences of acute mental health care in an ethnically diverse inner city: qualitative interview study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 47(1), 119-128.
- Latent class analysis of co-morbidity in the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey in England 2007: implications for DSM-5 and ICD-11. Psychological Medicine, 41(10), 2201-2212.
- The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): a valid and reliable tool for measuring mental well-being in diverse populations and projects. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 65(Suppl 2), A38-A39.
- Service users' experiences of a physical activity and lifestyle intervention for people with severe mental illness: A longitudinal qualitative study. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 65(Suppl 2), A19-A19.
- Vitamin D to reduce depressive symptoms: A systematic review. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 65(Suppl 2), A16-A16.
- Association between provision of mental illness beds and rate of involuntary admissions in the NHS in England 1988-2008: ecological study. BMJ, 343(jul05 1), d3736-d3736.
- Mental well-being and mental illness: findings from the Adult
Psychiatric Morbidity Survey for England 2007. British Journal of Psychiatry, 199(1), 23-28.
- Mixed anxiety and depressive disorder outcomes: prospective
cohort study in primary care. British Journal of Psychiatry, 198(6), 472-478.
- The OPERA trial: protocol for a randomised trial of an exercise intervention for older people in residential and nursing accommodation. Trials, 12(1). View this article in WRRO
- Consultation, referral and ethnicity: the role of primary care in accessing mental health services. Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care, 3(1), 6-14.
- Therapist-delivered internet psychotherapy for depression in primary care: a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 374(9690), 628-634.
- Family relationships in childhood and common psychiatric disorders in later life: systematic review of prospective studies. British Journal of Psychiatry, 194(5), 392-398.
- Internal construct validity of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): a Rasch analysis using data from the Scottish Health Education Population Survey. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 7(1). View this article in WRRO
- Development and Validation of an International Risk Prediction Algorithm for Episodes of Major Depression in General Practice Attendees. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65(12), 1368-1368.
- Availability of inpatient beds for psychiatric admissions in the NHS. BMJ, 337(oct09 2), a1561-a1561.
- Help-seeking preferences for psychological distress in primary care:. British Journal of General Practice, 58(555), 694-698.
- Debt, income and mental disorder in the general population. Psychological Medicine, 38(10), 1485-1493.
- Prevalence of common mental disorders in general practice attendees across Europe. British Journal of Psychiatry, 192(5), 362-367.
- The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): development and UK validation. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 5. View this article in WRRO
- Authors' reply. British Journal of Psychiatry, 191(4), 364-364.
- Attitudes to depression and its treatment in primary care. Psychological Medicine, 37(9), 1239-1248.
- Treatment of depression in primary care. British Journal of Psychiatry, 191(2), 164-169.
- Can the 12-item General Health Questionnaire be used to measure positive mental health?. Psychological Medicine, 37(7), 1005-1013.
- Depression and socio-economic risk factors: 7-year longitudinal population study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 190(4), 293-298.
- Social Capital and Mental Health. Edited by Kwame Mc Kenzie & Trudy Harpham. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
2006. 176pp. £25.00 (pb). ISBN
1843103559. British Journal of Psychiatry, 190(3), 278-278.
- The Stigma Scale: development of a standardised measure of the
stigma of mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 190(3), 248-254.
- Risk of suicide during treatment with venlafaxine, citalopram, fluoxetine, and dothiepin: retrospective cohort study. BMJ, 334(7587), 242-242.
- Socio-economic position and common mental
disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 189(2), 109-117.
- Risk of suicide during venlafaxine and comparator antidepressants treatment. PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY, 15, S40-S41.
- Religion, mental health and ethnicity. EMPIRIC – A national survey of England. Journal of Mental Health, 15(2), 153-162.
- Prediction of depression in European general practice attendees: the PREDICT study. BMC Public Health, 6(1). View this article in WRRO
- Rural/non-rural differences in rates of common mental disorders
in Britain. British Journal of Psychiatry, 188(1), 51-57.
- Racism, psychosis and common mental disorder among ethnic minority groups in England. Psychological Medicine, 35(12), 1795-1803.
- Geographical variation in rates of common mental disorders in Britain: Prospective cohort study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 187(1), 29-34.
- Psychotic symptoms in the general population of England. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 40(6), 509-509.
- Primary group size, social support, gender and future mental health status in a prospective study of people living in private households throughout Great Britain. Psychological Medicine, 35(5), 705-714.
- Psychotic symptoms in the general population of England. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 40(5), 375-381.
- Absence of spatial variation in rates of the common mental disorders. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 59(4), 254-257.
- Measuring Physical Characteristics of Housing: The Built Environment Site Survey Checklist (BESSC). Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 32(2), 265-280.
- Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Common Mental Disorders Among Workers: Findings From the EMPIRIC Study of Ethnic Minority Groups in the United Kingdom. American Journal of Public Health, 95(3), 496-501.
- Computerised patient-specific guidelines for management of common mental disorders in primary care: A randomised controlled trial. British Journal of General Practice, 54(508), 832-837.
- Common mental disorders and ethnicity in England: the EMPIRIC Study. Psychological Medicine, 34(8), 1543-1551.
- International and regional variation in the prevalence of common mental disorders: do we need more surveys?. British Journal of Psychiatry, 184(4), 289-290.
- Stigma: the feelings and experiences of 46 people with mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 184(2), 176-181.
- Dysfunctional attitudes and the common mental disorders in primary care. Journal of Affective Disorders, 75(3), 269-278.
- Contextual risk factors for the common mental disorders in Britain: a multilevel investigation of the effects of place. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 57(8), 616-621.
- Geographic Variation in the Prevalence of Common Mental Disorders in Britain: A Multilevel Investigation. American Journal of Epidemiology, 157(8), 730-737.
- Social capital and mental health. British Journal of Psychiatry, 181(4), 280-283.
- Income inequality and self rated health in Britain. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 56(6), 436-441.
- Mental health and the built environment: Cross – sectional survey of individual and contextual risk factors for depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 180(5), 428-433.
- Measuring the built environment: validity of a site survey instrument for use in urban settings. Health & Place, 7(4), 283-292.
- Social roles and the gender difference in rates of the common mental disorders in Britain: a 7-year, population-based cohort study. Psychological Medicine, 31(6), 1055-1064.
- Income inequality and the prevalence of common mental disorders in Britain. British Journal of Psychiatry, 178(3), 222-227.
- Attitudes of inner-city GPs to shared care for psychiatric patients in the community. British Journal of General Practice, 49(445), 643-644.
- Social roles and gender difference in the prevalence of common mental disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 173(DEC.), 489-493.
- Social roles and gender difference in the prevalence of common mental disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 173(6), 489-493.
- The cohort study. International Review of Psychiatry, 10(4), 284-290.
- Poverty, unemployment, and common mental disorders: population based cohort study. BMJ, 317(7151), 115-119.
- HIV‐associated brain pathology: a comparative international study. Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology, 24(2), 118-124.
- The comparison of latent variable models of non-psychotic
psychiatric morbidity in four culturally diverse populations. Psychological Medicine, 28(1), 145-152.
- Material standard of living, social class, and the prevalence of the common mental disorders in Great Britain. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 52(1), 8-14.
- HIV-associated brain pathology in the United Kingdom. AIDS, 11(9), 1145-1150.
- EDITORIAL. Psychological Medicine, 27(4), 757-764.
- Strategies for the prevention of psychiatric disorder in primary care in south London.. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 51(3), 304-309.
- Crisis in London's mental health services. BMJ, 314(7089), 1278-1278.
- The epidemiological toolbox in psychiatry. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 10(2), 149-152.
- Crisis in London's mental health services (multiple letters) [7]. British Medical Journal, 314(7089), 1278-1280.
- Do socio-economic risk factors predict the incidence
and maintenance of psychiatric disorder in primary care?. Psychological Medicine, 27(1), 73-80.
- Effect of Early Life Experiences and Personality on the Reporting of Psychosocial Distress in General Practice: A Preliminary Investigation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 168(1), 116-120.
- Mental health care costs: paucity of measurement. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 31(2), 70-77.
- Somatic presentation of psychiatric morbidity in general practice. British Journal of General Practice, 45(392), 143-147.
- Home- v. hospital–based care for people with serious mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 166(1), 120-120.
- Outreach clinics in general practice. BMJ, 308(6945), 1714-1715.
- Somatisation in general practice. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164(4), 562-562.
- Need proper evaluation [22]. British Medical Journal, 308(6945), 1714-1715.
- Distribution of mental health professionals in primary care.. BMJ, 307(6907), 804-804.
- Cost–benefit analysis of the Daily Living Programme. British Journal of Psychiatry, 161(5), 715-716.
- Non-suicidal self-harm: an evolving epidemiology. Psychological Medicine, 1-1.
- Interventions designed to improve therapeutic communications between black and minority ethnic people and professionals working in psychiatric services: a systematic review of the evidence for their effectiveness. Health Technology Assessment, 19(31), 1-174.
- Variation in compulsory psychiatric inpatient admission in England: a cross-sectional, multilevel analysis. Health Services and Delivery Research, 2(49), 1-90.
- Mental well-being and recovery in serious mental illness : associations between mental well-being and functional status in the health survey for England 2014. BJPsych Open, 6(4). View this article in WRRO
- Integrating physical activity into the treatment of depression in adults: A qualitative enquiry. Health & Social Care in the Community.
Chapters
- The epidemiology of sleep and depression, Sleep, Health and Society (pp. 178-190). Oxford University Press
Conference proceedings papers
- An innovative approach to integrating physical activity (PA) into the management of mild-to-moderate depression (MMD). JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY & HEALTH, Vol. 15(10) (pp S54-S54) View this article in WRRO
- The association between first-episode psychosis and abnormal glycaemic control: Systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical studies. European Psychiatry, Vol. 41(S1) (pp s827-s827)
- P.2.a.021 Depression and socio-economic status: an 8-year longitudinal population-based study. European Neuropsychopharmacology, Vol. 16 (pp S294-S295)
Other
- Mental health after covid-19. BMJ, o326-o326.
- The association between first-episode psychosis and abnormal glycaemic control: systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(11), 1049-1058.
- Teaching interests
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I’ve been a teacher and approved trainer of undergraduate medical students and postgraduate Psychiatry trainees for many years, and was MBChB Psychiatry Lead at Warwick Medical School from 2003 to 2010. I estimate that I have been clinical supervisor to more than 75 junior doctors in the past 20 years. I have lectured recently on global mental health, depression and stress.
I have supervised numerous postgraduate research students, and currently have three PhD and two MSc students.
- Teaching activities
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PhD supervision
I would be pleased to hear from potential PhD students who would like to undertake mental health-related projects, particularly those related to the development and evaluation of services for people with mental illnesses or in those with co-existing mental and physical health problems. I would also be pleased to hear from potential students who are interested inequalities in mental health, experiences of mental health care (including compulsion and coercion) and the effects of context (including the built environment and green space) on mental health outcomes. I am happy to be contacted for an informal discussion of potential research ideas.
- Professional activities
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- Head, Mental Health Research Unit (ScHARR)
- Deputy Director of Research (ScHARR)
- Sub-theme lead (Mental Health and Comorbidities), Yorkshire & Humber CLAHRC
- Member, NIHR Health Technology Assessment CET Board
- Clinical Academic Training Lead for Psychiatry (Sheffield Medical School)
- Chair, West Midlands NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Panel (2013-2016)