Dr Vilas Sawrikar
Lecturer in Clinical Psychology

Contact details
- Email: vilas.sawrikar@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Medical Quad
Teviot Place
Doorway 6, Rm 1.M8 - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9AG
Background
I am a Lecturer of Clinical Psychology in the School of Health and Social Sciences, registered Clinical Psychologist, and Health Data Analyst/Statistician. Clinical psychology is a career change for me. I have also previously worked as a Health Economist implementing components of National Health Reform, including optimisation of hospital funding systems and resource allocation into practice. I aim to combine both professional skills focusing on translational research in child and adolescent mental health.
Qualifications
PhD in Clinical Psychology
Ms in Clinical Psychology
Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology
Graduate Diploma in Psychology
Ms Applied Statitistics
B Economics
Responsibilities & affiliations
Academic Lead of Personalised Youth Mental Health (PRYMH) Research Team
Programme Director of Msc of Mental Health in Children and Young People: Psychological Approaches
Deputy Director of Centre of Applied Developmental Psychology
Neurocognitive Psychology Group Member
PGR PhD & MsR Application Review Panel Member
Lecturer in Clinical Psychology
Postgraduate teaching
MSc Mental Health in Children and Young People: Psychological Approaches:
- Evidence-based Psychological Interventions for Children and Young People
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
Research projects related to: (i) Depression in Young People, and (ii) Parenting, Parental/Family factors, and Child and Youth Psychopathology
Research summary
My research area of interest is in applications of personalised medicine in cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and personalised healthcare for children and young people. My research interests are especially linked with the clinical psychology treatments I deliver: CBT for youth anxiety/depression and family-based interventions. I use research methods that study:
(i) Transdiagnostic characterisation of mental disorders. I conduct transdiagnostic research in affective development and psychopathology and using our knowledge of transdiagnostic characterisation of illness to inform how to personalise therapy. I am particularly interested in understanding individual differences in affective development that underpin (i) comorbid internalising and externalising problems, and (ii) depression in young people
(ii) Personalised psychological interventions. I study approaches to personalising therapy for mental health problems such as disruptive behaviour, externalising problems, and depression, as well as factors that may either predict or moderate treatment outcomes. My work emphasises the salience of parent/family factors that influence treatment outcomes from psychotherapy for young people.
(iii) Stratification in mental health where the focus is on clinical staging to personalise treatments for children and young people. To that end, I have been focused on 'staged care' which is an integrated care model that promotes prevention of anxiety/depression among young people.
Please refer to the research projects below about current activities focusing on personalising treatments for children, young people, and families/carers.
Current research interests
Clinical child and family psychology: internalising and externalising problems; family-based influences on child neurodevelopment and mental health (e.g., parenting, parent cognition; attachment; early adverse experiences), and child risk characteristics (e.g., temperament, emotion dysregulation, neurobiology).Past research interests
Health cost and funding systems to determine allocation of economic resourcesProject activity
I invite prospective students to contact me if they are interested in these current research projects:
1. Neurocognitive psychology associated with mood dysfunction and mental disorders. This is pursued by employing cognitive neuroscience research methodology to understand subtypes of mood disorders based causal theories of depression, in order to personalise treatment approaches according to notable neurodevelopmental characteristics of illness.
2. Role of irritability in comorbid externalising and internalising problems among young people. Irritability is a common dimension of mental ill health and may explain comorbid problems of externalising and internalising problems. I am interested in cognitive and emotional regulatory processes associated with irritability implicated in mood, self-harm and suicidality.
3. Patient activation and self-management of mental health. The focus is on understanding processes in help-seeking, accessing, and engagement in various forms of family-management, self-management and professional help. To this end, I am interested in decision-making processes informed by behavioural economics to understand how best to promote family- and self-management of mental health.
4. Population health approaches for mental health ('right care, right time, right place'). I have been focused on 'staged care' which proposes that universal personalised healthcare can help reduce the occurrence and burden associated with affective disorders. Specific work includes building an evidence base for clinical staging for children and young people, stage-appropriate psychotherapy, stage-based stepped care, and workforce training in evidence-based practice and stage-based care.
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Correction to: Does behavioural parent training reduce internalising symptoms (or not) among children with externalising problems? Systematic review and meta-analysis (European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, (2022), 10.1007/s00787-022-02122-3)
(1 page)
In:
European child & adolescent psychiatry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-023-02201-z
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Comment/debate (E-pub ahead of print) -
An examination of behavioural and emotional problems in children exposed prenatally to the 27F Chilean earthquake: Findings from the ELPI cohort
In:
Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02433-z
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Strategic priorities for implementation of father-inclusive practice in mental health services for children and families: A Delphi expert consensus study
(37 pages)
In:
Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-022-01222-1
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Does behavioural parent training reduce internalising symptoms (or not) among children with externalising problems? Systematic review and meta-analysis
In:
European child & adolescent psychiatry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-022-02122-3
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Technology acceptance and trust: Overlooked considerations in young people’s use of digital mental health interventions
(7 pages)
In:
Health Policy and Technology, vol. 11
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2022.100686
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Multiple needs and multiple treatments. What's a clinician to do? Update on the psychosocial treatment of disruptive behaviours in childhood
In:
Current Opinion in Psychiatry, vol. 35, pp. 409-416
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0000000000000823
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Transdiagnostic clinical staging for childhood mental health: An adjunctive tool for classifying internalizing and externalizing syndromes that emerge in children aged 5-11 years
(14 pages)
In:
Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, vol. 25, pp. 613-626
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-022-00399-z
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Do attachment-related differences in reflective functioning explain associations between expressed emotion and youth self-harm?
(39 pages)
In:
Current psychology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03614-w
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Barriers and facilitators to engaging mothers and fathers in family-based interventions: A qualitative systematic review
In:
Child psychiatry and human development
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-022-01389-6
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Psychosocial interventions for depression delivered by non-mental health specialists to people living with HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review
(13 pages)
In:
Journal of Global Health, vol. 12
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04049
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Outcome findings and issues in psychotherapy with children and adolescents: Externalizing disorders
(19 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818697-8.00063-7
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Family therapy interventions for psychopathy
(26 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83156-1_19
Research output: › Chapter (Published)