Professor Stephen Lawrie
Chair of Psychiatry and Neuro-Imaging
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Division of Psychiatry
Contact details
- Tel: 0131 537 6671
- Email: s.lawrie@ed.ac.uk
Background
Stephen MacGregor Lawrie is a Professor of Psychiatry in Edinburgh, mainly interested in early detection and the development of interventions to enhance outcomes and possibly even prevent psychosis, and remains clinically active in a geographically sectorised general adult psychiatry service.
Leadership roles have included directing a regional autism diagnostic service, chairing a regional drug formulary, and running a national research network. As Head of Psychiatry from 2010-20, he oversaw an expansion of PIs and Profs in Psychiatry (which was rated 3rd in the UK in REF2014 and REF2021 with Neuroscience & Psychology).
He has published more than 400 papers in peer-reviewed journals, many of which have been highly cited (Web of Science h-index >75, with >20,000 citations; Google Scholar >100 and >40, 000), including notable contributions using structural and functional brain imaging to predict schizophrenia, to elucidate the neurobiology of schizophrenia and develop multi-centre neuroimaging capabilities, as well as to the practice of evidence-based psychiatry.
He has supervised more than 30 doctoral and 30 masters students to completion, including three now full Professors, and obtained PhD funding for another 60 or so through PsySTAR, Translational Neuroscience and other PhD programmes. In crude financial terms, his career PI/Co-PI grant income is >£80M.
These achievements have been recognised in Fellowships of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. As a Beltane Public Engagement Fellow, he has made several appearances and contributions in various media to increase knowledge and reduce stigmatisation of mental illness, including shows on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He has been profiled twice in The Lancet (2011 378:1911 & 2017 389:1090) and twice in The Lancet Psychiatry (2016 3:931 & 2018 5:e26). He has published 7 books and recently co-authored ‘The Beginners Guide to Sanity: a self-help book for people affected by psychosis’ with Erica Crompton, which was shortlisted for the People’s Book prize.
His main current preoccupations are co-producing a psychosis detection and management system in Malawi, and co-authoring the next edition of the OUP VSI to Schizophrenia.
Responsibilities & affiliations
Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, NHS Lothian
Research tutor, SE Scotland Psychiatry Training Scheme
Editorial Board of six Journals including The Lancet Psychiatry
Field editor (Neuro-Imaging) for the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry
Regular reviewing etc for Wellcome, ERC etc
Research summary
Professor Lawrie’s overarching goal is to develop research tools to provide objective diagnoses and improve the management of major psychiatric disorder.
He is particularly interested in clinical applications of brain imaging in psychosis and in the development of novel treatments that might enhance outcomes in established schizophrenia and possibly even prevent psychosis in high risk populations.
Research activities
- Out of sight, Out of Mind
- NIHR Oxford BRC for Mental Health Review
- Imaging of people at high of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia
- Early developmental and multivariate analyses of brain structure predict schizophrenia in the Edinburgh High Risk Study
- Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2018, Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas
- Univ Costa Rica, Universidad Costa Rica, Escuela Biol to
- Discussion and debate about mental health issues affecting students
- Stand Up for Psychiatry
- Psychiatry is the Best Medicine!
- Society of Biological Psychiatry
-
Thalamo-cortical circuits during sensory attenuation in emerging psychosis: a combined magnetoencephalography and dynamic causal modelling study
In:
Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany), vol. 9, pp. 25
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41537-023-00341-4
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Large-scale analysis of structural brain asymmetries in schizophrenia via the ENIGMA consortium
In:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), vol. 120, pp. e2213880120
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2213880120
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Pathway-based polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia and associations with reported psychotic-like experiences and neuroimaging phenotypes in UK Biobank
In:
Biological psychiatry global open science
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsgos.2023.03.004
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Substance use, risk behaviours and well-being after admission to a quasi-residential abstinence-based rehabilitation programme: 4-year follow-up
In:
BJPsych Open, vol. 9, pp. e52
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2023.23
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The role of brain structure in the association between pubertal timing and depression risk in an early adolescent sample (the ABCD Study®): A registered report
In:
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 60, pp. 101223
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101223
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print)