Dr Katie Marwick

Senior Clinical Research Fellow and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist with NHS Lothian

  • Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences
  • Division of Psychiatry
  • Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences

Contact details

Background

Dr Katie Marwick is an academic psychiatrist specialising in reproductive psychiatry. Clinically, she works in a multidisciplinary premenstrual syndrome clinic and inpatient perinatal psychiatry. Her research aims to understand more about the links between reproductive transitions and severe mental illness. She studied medicine at the University of Cambridge and University of Edinburgh, before training in Psychiatry in south east Scotland.  She completed a Wellcome Trust funded PhD  via the Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track scheme. Postdoctorally she held a CSO/NES Clinical Lecturer post while completing Higher Training in General Adult Psychiatry. She is currently a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist with NHS Lothian.

Qualifications

MA MBChB MRCPsych PhD

Undergraduate teaching

I created and lead the team that prepares the Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs) in Psychiatry for year 5 medical students.

I am author of a popular undergraduate textbook, "Crash Course in Psychiatry" (4th and 5th editions) and faculty advisor for the 6th edition.

I have supervised honours projects in neuroscience.

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

No

Areas of interest for supervision

I am currently at capacity and not able to take on new PhD students. 

Current PhD students supervised

I am co-supervisor for an Epilepsy Research UK funded PhD studentship investigating the role of the NMDA receptor GluN2A subunit in childhood-onset epilepsy.

Research summary

My over-arching interest is the biological mechanisms by which severe mental disorders arise and are maintained.  My PhD and early post-doctoral work focused on investigating the functional consequences of disease-associated variants in NMDA receptors. I am now exploring the mechanisms underlying the association between reproductive transitions and women's mental health problems, particularly severe perinatal mental illness and exacerbations of bipolar and psychosis during the menstrual cycle and menopause. Currently I am working with routinely collected health care records to identify comorbidities of postpartum psychosis.

Research interests and experience:

  • Postpartum psychosis
  • Perimenstrual exacerbations of psychiatric disorders
  • Perimenopause and mental health
  • Ethnic disparities in mental health
  • Bipolar affective disorder
  • NMDA receptors
  • Electrophysiology
  • Data science

Emerging Clinical Researcher Committee member - Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland (current)

Expert Reviewer for Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Perinatal Mental Health Guideline 169 (2023)

Contributor to Academy of Medical Sciences response to the Government’s 10-year mental health and wellbeing plan (2022)

Junior Clinical Academic Committee member - British Medical Association (previous)