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At first glance, acting and hypnosis may seem like very different worlds. But both raise a surprisingly similar question: how can the mind make an imagined reality feel real enough to change what we experience? This question has followed me for years. My name is Tiago Garcia, and my background in Film Studies first made me interested in how actors build characters.

I am currently a visiting researcher at Imperial College London as part of the Mood Instability Research group. I am particularly interested in applying computational approaches, such as machine learning to complex data, to better understand mental health. Machine learning is a computational approach that can examine multiple factors simultaneously and identify patterns in data sets, that may not be apparent when using traditional statistical approaches.

Imagine sailing through the most chaotic latitudes of Earth: the so-called Roaring 40s and furious 50’s, uncharted southern seas where your ship, the Marion Dufresne II, is the sole vessel carving a path through these distant waves. After 20 days, you reach a remote island where you’ll spend a whole year with 28 strangers, surrounded by albatrosses, subantarctic fur seals, southern elephant seals, orcas, and penguins. 29 humans. No one else.

I am Martin Osugo, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist working to improve the lives of people with schizophrenia through both clinical practice and research. I first became deeply interested in schizophrenia in my first year of medical school. That interest eventually led me to a PhD at King’s College London’s Department of Psychosis Studies, two years after I qualified as a doctor. I have cared for people with psychosis in my community and inpatient settings.

At the core of any healthcare or science degree, students learn the importance of numbers. Specifically, “bigger” is often synonymous with “success”. It has been viscerally etched into my brain since my undergraduate Psychology research methods and statistics courses: a larger sample size, meaning more individuals enrolled in a study, increases statistical power and overall confidence in the findings.

What does it take to conduct biological mental health research with young people, and what can get in the way? My name is Camila, and I’m a Research Assistant at the Stress Psychiatry and Immunology Lab at King’s College London. Around three years ago, I first joined the team during my undergraduate placement year, working primarily on the CELEBRATE project.

I study sperm for a living, so I am used to the giggles and raised eyebrows. But here is the fact that surprises almost everyone: we understood the female reproductive system in reasonable scientific detail well before we understood the male one — and in some ways, we are still catching up. This is not an abstract interest for me. As a young and inquisitive scientist, I quickly realised how little knowledge existed around male reproductive health, which pushed me to pursue a

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just spread loneliness and hopelessness - it pushed the already-stretched mental health services past breaking point. Mental health disorders rose by 25% in the pandemic’s first year alone. Traditional, in-person care couldn’t keep up. So, healthcare systems turned to digital interventions delivered through a patient’s phone. 85% of NHS trusts in England now offer digital mental health interventions to adult patients.

A boy diagnosed with cancer at seven years old is not thinking about fatherhood. His parents are not thinking about it either, not really, not while they are absorbing a diagnosis and bracing for treatment. And yet, tucked into that first wave of decisions, is one about a future so distant it barely feels real: whether to try to preserve his fertility before treatment takes it away. I recently completed a DPhil in reproductive science, alongside a master's in clinical embryol

I have read countless articles on the gut-brain relationship, but very few go into depth about one particular concept. As a Nutrition & Lifestyle Practitioner completing an MSc in Psychology & Neuroscience of the Mind-Body Interface, a few classmates asked me to share my knowledge in this area, so I decided to write about the most important thing I’ve learned in the past several years on the gut-brain axis.

Before a baby can understand a single word, before they can even clearly focus on a face, they already know one sound better than any other: their mother’s voice, with research suggesting that infants learn to recognise this specific sound even before they are born. The maternal voice has a profound impact on the baby, playing a crucial role in their cognitive and emotional development, fostering secure attachment, and providing a sense of safety and comfort.

In an era of increasing need for understanding mental health and neurodegenerative conditions, identifying links between the two could revolutionise our approach towards clinical care. My name is Lili, and I am a stem cell biologist working at King’s College London in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. I am part of a research group that uses cellular and molecular biology, as well as bioinformatics.

Like many researchers, my journey into Parkinson’s disease began with a personal connection. Growing up with a father with Parkinson’s, I learned early that a diagnosis is only the beginning of the story.

When we think about depression, we often think first about sadness, hopelessness, or losing interest in things we once enjoyed. But depression is much more diverse than that. Two people can receive the same diagnosis and experience very different combinations of depressive symptoms. For example, even the same symptomatologic areas can be affected in opposite ways: some people may sleep much more than usual, while others struggle with insomnia and have difficulty sleeping.

I have been watching the Lindsay Clancy trial unfold over the past few weeks, with growing unease. Now, after weeks of testimony and intense public scrutiny, the proceedings have ended in a mistrial. Before I started my PhD, I knew very little about postpartum psychosis (PPP). I had briefly studied it during my Neuroscience and Psychiatric research bachelor’s and master’s degrees. But it wasn’t until I co-led the PRAM-P cohort study.

As a Senior Research Fellow in Digital Health at King's College London, I've spent the past few years speaking with young adults about social media and mental health. As the UK moves towards restrictions on social media use for under-16s, alongside other countries taking a similar approach, public discussion often comes down to a simple question: is social media good or bad for young people's mental health? To explore this topic, my colleagues and I interviewed 28 young adult

We need to talk about sex in mental health settings. In recent years, it has become widely recognised that people living with psychiatric disorders experience a disproportionate burden of preventable physical illness. Research suggests that people with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) die 15-20 years earlier than the general population, with physical health conditions contributing substantially to this mortality gap. Growing recognition of this inequality has driven efforts to imp

I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are.

ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie

I am Simone, a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist employed by South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. I am both a researcher and a clinician. I work within a National Specialist team that oversees the delivery of an evidence-based intervention to young people and their families, where there are high concerns around the young person’s behaviour. The intervention is called Multisystemic Therapy or MST. The aim of treatment is to prevent the young person from go

Most of us will know that nausea and vomiting are common in pregnancy, affecting up to 70% of pregnant women. Less well known is hyperemesis gravidarum, or HG, in which nausea and vomiting reach a severity such that women struggle to eat or drink, often losing weight or becoming dehydrated, sometimes to the extent that they require intravenous fluids. As a neuropsychiatric doctor and researcher at King’s College London, I have a particular interest in the overlap of physical

After my early studies in engineering, where I learnt how to build systems, make them work, or fix them, I returned to my books in my forties to study psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience. I came to appreciate that, while some of these disciplines are also “technical” (an issue or illness is identified, categorised, and addressed through problem-solving), others are much closer to the human dimension.

In November 2022, I took my first step into science as a full-time researcher. I had no idea then that the very first project I worked on would take nearly four years to reach publication. In this article, I will talk about what truly works to treat depression in pregnancy, and why I do this research. Depression in pregnancy, which is known as antenatal depression (AD), affects nearly 30% of pregnant women around the world. What makes AD so important to treat is the negati

Cystic fibrosis is a rare, autosomal recessive genetic disorder caused by mutations in the CFTR (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator) gene, located on one of the 22 pairs of non-sex chromosomes. An affected child inherits two mutated copies of the gene, one from each parent, who possess only a single defective copy and are asymptomatic “healthy carriers”.