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Who are the Psych Stars?
Selected by The Royal College of Psychiatrists, Psych Star ambassadors are a group of final year medical students awarded for their particular interest and commitment to psychiatry. During the year-long scheme as Psych Stars, students are nurtured in their interest in psychiatry through the assignment of mentors, by gaining access to learning resources and events, and by becoming part of a network of like-minded students.
We have decided to invite each of the Psych Stars to write a blog on how they envision the future of mental health by choosing an area in which they are passionate. We have decided to run the series as a celebration of these student’s success and to provide an outlook for each of the awardees to share their passion.
The Fear of Clowns and a Smile We Cannot Trust
Like many who heard the news on the evening of Wednesday 26th August about the passing of actor Tim Curry, grief presented itself in me as reminiscing about his iconic roles throughout my childhood. Although Curry’s Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 1990s adaptation of Stephen King’s IT may have helped cement the sinister killer-clown trope in the mainstream since, the fear of clowns long precedes his performance.
Melisa Kose
2 days ago5 min read
What Does Inflammatory Depression Look Like, and How Can We Assess It?
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.
Benedetta Vai
3 days ago5 min read
Postpartum Psychosis Is More Complex Than the Lindsay Clancy Trial
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.
Sorcha Alford
4 days ago6 min read
Young People Want to Talk About Social Media. Are We Listening?
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
Ruth Plackett
6 days ago5 min read
Sexual Health is Mental Health: Developing ACCESS-MH
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
Sorcha Alford
6 days ago6 min read
Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia?
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.
Luke Vano
Sep 45 min read
What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD
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
Laura Huddart
Sep 35 min read
Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way
You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it.
Chloe Johnson
Sep 35 min read
A Family Intervention for Severe Behaviour Problems
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
Simone Fox
Sep 14 min read
Cara’s Path to Finding Herself at Notting Hill Carnival - A Short Story
Since losing her Uncle Easton, Cara hadn't felt like herself — until she played mas again, dancing to groovy soca in the sun at Notting Hill Carnival. Cara has always been someone who keeps to herself. You could call her a lone wolf by nature — she keeps her emotions close but is the kind of person who is always there to lend a listening ear and a smile to those on their heaviest days. Having first experienced depression at 15, Cara would wander into her dad's room and lie on
Kanika Phillip
Aug 286 min read
How Kashmir’s Shortage of Psychiatrists Leaves Patients Misdiagnosed
In the villages and towns of Indian-administered Kashmir, mental illness often arrives disguised as something else. People complain of racing heartbeats, chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness, stomach discomfort, and fear. Many spend months, and sometimes years, visiting hospitals convinced they are suffering from heart disease or another physical illness. They undergo repeated tests, collect folders full of prescriptions, and move from one doctor to another in search of ans
Irfan Amin Malik
Aug 275 min read
Hyperemesis Gravidarum: Hidden No More?
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
Hamilton Morrin
Aug 265 min read
Time to Express Ourselves
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.
Gabriele Perrone
Aug 255 min read
The Gold in the Cracks
I learned to live two lives before I learned much else. My mother had schizophrenia. I was a child and did not know what the word meant. What I knew was that some months she did not get out of bed, and I fed myself. My dad drank his sorrows away. I remember him coming home drunk, and my brothers and I learning to disappear. In that house, invisibility was how you stayed safe. That was the first life.
Manuel Gomez
Aug 246 min read
What Four Years of Research Taught Me About Treating Depression In Pregnancy
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
Riddhi Laijawala
Aug 214 min read
Care-Experienced Young People Shaping Mental Health Research
This piece was written by researchers at University College London (Havovi Khareghat and Eva Sprecher) and lived-experience advisors (Clo H, Valerie, Ace Garmodon & Alfie-James Waring) from the ReThink programme. ReThink is a UKRI-funded research project that explored what makes a difference to the mental health of care-experienced young people (who have grown up in ‘state care’ e.g., foster care or children’s homes) moving through early and late adolescence.
Havovi Khareghat
Aug 205 min read
Men’s Grooming and Mental Health: Why the Routine Matters
I'm Adam, a 28-year-old lad from Nottingham, and I'm the founder of Kick The Stigma — a male grooming brand on a mission to support men's mental health. That sentence probably sounds a bit unusual: a hair product brand and mental health support in the same breath. But stick with me, because the two are more connected than you might think. My journey didn’t start with products. Growing up, I was fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of love, joy and support.
Adam Hyland
Aug 196 min read
Weathering the Storm of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
“Drama Queen” “Forever a victim”“She’s doing the ‘woe is me’ act again”
“She’s having another hissy fit." These were just some of the things I grew up hearing about myself – and continue to. In hindsight, remarks like these were thinly veiled commentary that people saw me as too sensitive, too emotional, too moody - and too easily hurt by the things they did or said.
Emma Green
Aug 185 min read
The Invisible Challenge of Cystic Fibrosis
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”.
Giovanna Zerial
Aug 175 min read
The Long Way Home
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey contains all the elements of an epic: gods, monsters, storms, shipwrecks and spectacular battles. Yet the part that stayed with me was much quieter. It was Odysseus’s growing recognition that victory in war may be an illusion, and that even a victorious soldier can return carrying profound psychological wounds. Matt Damon’s Odysseus is celebrated as the brilliant strategist who conceived the Trojan Horse and brought a ten-year war to an end.
Tony Woods
Aug 146 min read
Is it the End of the Bad Boy?
Take one look at me, and you can probably tell I had an emo phase (“it was never a phase mom”).
To this day, I’m still allergic to wearing colour and can be found listening to the 2000s emo and pop punk bands that brought me comfort in my teens. But, at this point, I’m starting to run out of bands to listen to that haven’t had serious allegations made against them. I’m only 30, but so much has progressed since my school days - gay marriage has been legalised, Black Lives Ma
Niamh Alford
Aug 135 min read
The Curse of Being a Lover Girl: The Fantasy of Being Chosen
Before many women even know who they are, they already know what it feels like to long for love. Girls grow up consuming love stories long before they ever experience love itself. Five-year-old me already dreamed about my future wedding and the white princess dress I would wear. Many of us spent our early teens creating Pinterest wedding boards, singing along to Taylor Swift heartbreak anthems, watching Snow White and Aurora being kissed awake by their true love, and imaginin
Caroline Lackner
Aug 125 min read
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