Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience

Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

About the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Children and adolescents live through multiple periods of critical, sometimes chaotic, development affecting the ways they think, feel, and perceive. Biologically and genetically, they are in flux. It is vital that approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions are different from those adopted with adults.

The Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, headed by Professor Philip Shaw at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience is world-renowned for its progressive research in this field. Our goal is to understand in principle how childhood disorders are distinct from their adult equivalents. We then apply those principles to prevention, diagnosis and treatment - specifically designed with development in mind.

World-leading research

The Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People is dedicated to improving mental health of children and young people research and clinical care. Developed by King’s College London, the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and the Maudsley Charity, the centre is due to open it's doors in 2025.

It will bring together world-leading scientists at the IoPPN, the Trust's specialist child and adolescent mental health services to work alongside each other to better understand the root causes of mental health problems in order to identify those at risk earlier on and develop new treatments andways of addressing the mental health and wellbeing challenges facing children and young people today.

The new facilities and the work to be undertaken there are a timely response to rising mental health problems amongst children and young people – a trend exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The building will house the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry alongside modern inpatient, outpatient and crisis mental health care facilities for children and young people. There will be state of the art child- and family-friendly clinical research facilities, including an imaging suite, virtual reality and a digital laboratory.

Areas of expertise

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Mental Disorders in Intellectual Disability
Affective Disorders (Anxiety and Depression)
Deliberate Self-Harm
Parenting and Antisocial Behaviour
Conduct Disorder
Neurodevelopment and Mental Health
Childhood trauma and PTSD

We provide the essential link between state-of-the-art science and its translation into clinical services, strengthened by our pivotal role within King’s Health Partners and our staff’s myriad connections with the National Specialist teams based at the Maudsley Hospital. The Department is also home to the National Academy of Parenting Research.

The Department is the focus for the Child Mental Disorders theme within the Biomedical Research Centre (funded by the National Institute for Health Research), and is headed by Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke.

To find out more about the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, watch the short videos below:

PhD Opportunities

For information about the PhD opportunities available within the School of Academic Psychiatry visit Postgraduate Research Programmes page or the online prospectus.

For any PhD related enquiries for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, please contact Professor C hiara Nosarti . We also offer a wide range of support, training and development opportunities to our postgraduate research students, these can be found on the Continuing professional development page.

Current research projects in the department

Parenting intervention program;
Treatment foster care;
Functional imaging in normal development and child psychiatric disorders;
Neuropsychology of impulsiveness;
Outcome and genetics of ADHD.
Parental risk, brain development and psychopathology

Our courses (Taught)

Child & Adolescent Mental Health MSc

Duration: One year full-time, September to September, two years part-time for UK-based clinicians working in CAMH/ paediatric settings

This is a unique course for international and UK-based psychiatrists, paediatricians and psychologists, as well as allied professionals leading to enhanced clinical and research skills in child and adolescent mental health.

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Family Therapy MSc

Duration: One year full-time, September to September, two years part-time

Our Family Therapy MSc course offers a comprehensive course of clinical training in family therapy, including extensive supervised work with families in both adult and child mental health settings.

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Family Therapy Grad Cert

Duration: One year full-time, September to June, two years part-time

Our Family Therapy Grad Cert course enables mental health professionals to develop useful theoretical knowledge and practise skills to enable them to work effectively with couples and families in the context of their own professional practice.

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Our courses (Research)

Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Qualification(s): MPhil MDRes PhD

MPhil/PhD/MDRes from the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at King's College London.

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Arjoon Arunasalam

Project Coordinator
Dr Benjamin Baig

Senior Clinical Lecturer
Ms Claire Ballard

Research Assistant
Dr Hari Krishna Bollampalli

Research Associate
Ms Julie Burnell
Dr Susie Chandler

Postdoctoral Research Fellow & RE-STAR Programme Manager
Professor Andrea Danese

Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Dr Louisa Gossé
Dr Kirsty Griffiths

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Laila Hadaya

Research Worker
Dr Matthew Hollocks

Senior Clinical Lecturer
Dr Myrofora Kakoulidou

Research Assistant
Dr Kasia Kostyrka-Allchorne

Research Fellow
Nancy Lean

OPTIMA Research Administrator
Dr Jiedi Lei

Trainee Clinical Psychologist
Dr Stephanie Lewis

Clinical Lecturer
Juliana Lovato

Executive Assistant to the Head of Department
Dr Steve Lukito

Post-doctoral Research Associate
Dr Daniel Michelson

Clinical Reader
Zameer Mohamed

Trainee Clinical Psychologist
Dr Mohapradeep Mohan

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Ms Anna Morris

Research Assistant
Dr Abdolreza Mossadegh

Research Associate
Professor Chiara Nosarti

Professor of Neurodevelopment and Mental Health
Jane Offerman

Senior Research Support Officer
Professor Dennis Ougrin

Visiting Professor
Dr Melanie Palmer

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Umaya Prasad

Research Assistant
Maria Rodriguez

PhD student
Miss Maria Rodriguez Perez

PhD Student
Professor Katya Rubia

Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
Dr Gonzalo Salazar de Pablo

Senior Clinical Lecturer
Professor Paramala Santosh

Professor of Developmental Neuropsychiatry and Psychopharmacology
Professor Stephen Scott

Professor and Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Professor Philip Shaw

Director, King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People
Professor Emily Simonoff

Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Click here for a full list of people associated with this department

Brain Health in Gen2020

Gen2020 researchers will map the potential impact of prenatal exposures such as Covid-19 on fetal and childhood brain development and outcomes.

Centre for Interventional Paediatric Psychopharmacology Research Team (CIPPRT)

CIPPRT is a team focused on medication-related suicidality, development of Patient Center Outcome Measures (PCOMs), as well as rare diseases such as Rett syndrome and mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) syndrome.

Danese Lab: Stress & Development

The Stress & Development Lab is led by Andrea Danese, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. The Lab aims to understand how stressful experiences in childhood affect development and later health, and how to best support children who had such traumatic experiences.

Developmental Neuroimaging

Our research uses neuroimaging, neurocognitive, and psychopharmacological methods to better understand ADHD and related child psychiatric disorders as well as normal brain development from childhood to adulthood.

Experimental Psychopathology and Neuro-Development Group

ExPAND focuses on understanding neuro-developmental disorders and mental health conditions across the lifespan.

King's Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People

Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People is set to be the world-leading centre for child and adolescent mental health.

Mental Health Problems in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Additional mental health problems are substantially increased amongst people with neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and global intellectual disability (ID)

National Academy for Parenting Research

The National Academy for Parenting Research (NAPR) aims to do this through an ambitious programme of trials of different approaches to the parenting task, with a variety of children and young people.

Neurodevelopment and Mental Health Group

The Neurodevelopment and Mental Health group works with the Centre for the Developing Brain, to study how developmental changes in the brain affect cognitive and behavioural outcomes in developing individuals.

Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People

The Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People is set to be the world-leading centre for child and adolescent mental health.

ATTENS Project

The ATTENS Project is a multi-centre study across London and Southampton will explore the potential of eTNS in improving symptoms, cognitive performance and the functioning of the brain in children with ADHD.

External Trigeminal nerve stimulation (eTNS) is the first non-drug ADHD treatment device approved (in 2019) by the USA Food and Drug administration (FDA). eTNS is a battery charged device that sends small electrical pulses or currents under the skin, activating the trigeminal nerve on the forehead which leads to the activation of the brain stem and frontal brain regions that are important for arousal and attention.

DIORA

Dynamic Interplay of Online Risk and Resilience in Adolescence (DIORA) looks at what happens on a day-to-day basis in teenagers’ online experiences. We want to understand how these experiences are related to changes in mental health and whether they vary depending on the sorts of mental health problems people are experiencing.

The project is led by Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke of the ExPAND research group. The research is conducted together with colleagues at The London School of Economics and Political Science and is funded by the Medical Research Council.

Economics of Parenting Programmes

Little information exists about the cost effectiveness of different parenting interventions. Economics of Parenting Programmes is collecting data to provide evidence in the UK context to help commissioners make decisions about the most efficient and economical programmes given the needs of their populations.

KeepCool

KeepCool is a series of educational videos designed to help young people learn about and cope with strong emotions. The project is funded by UK Research and Innovation and led by Andrea Danese, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at King’s College London and the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, in collaboration with the McPin Foundation, TOAD, and Passion Digital.

OPTIMA

Online Parent Training for the Initial Management of ADHD referral (OPTIMA) is a research programme that tests whether a mobile phone app called STEPS can provide timely access to advice and support for families, who face challenges while they are waiting to access specialist clinical services. STEPS provides tools to support parents of children aged 5-11 years. Its content has been shaped by the latest research about parenting and child behaviour and many years of clinical experience. STEPS does not replace clinical support but gives parents access to additional help while they are waiting for a full clinical assessment.

The programme is led by Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke of the ExPAND research group. The research is conducted with the universities of Southampton and Nottingham and is funded by the National Institute for Health Research.

RE-STAR

Many young people with neuroatypicalities such as ADHD and autism traits develop depression during adolescence - but we currently don't know which individuals are at risk, what underlying processes increase that risk or, perhaps most importantly, the best way to intervene to increase resilience to reduce that risk. RE-STAR will address these gaps by testing the specific role of emotion regulation difficulties, so commonly observed in young people with neuroatypicalities, in driving developmental pathways to depression.

STOP (Suicidality: Treatment Occurring in Paediatrics)

The STOP project has developed a new web-based STOP Suicidality Suite of Measures (Suicidality Assessment scale, Medication Side-Effect Suicidality scale, Risk and Resilience Suicidality Scale) for children and adolescents (8 to 18 years old) using the HealthTrackerTM system. HealthTrackerTM is an online tested health-monitoring platform that uniquely allows multimodal presentation of questionnaires and assists in automatically allocating questionnaires based on developmental level rather than chronological age.

Why do attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder and/or autism traits place adolescents at risk for depression? Protocol for a longitudinal comparison of the mediating role of emotion regulation deficits versus emotional burden

Peripheral Inflammation and Neurocognitive Functioning in Early Psychosis: Specific Associations of TNF-α and IL-6 with Social Cognition

Allostatic load index across the psychosis spectrum: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Aggressive Behavior in Children and Adolescents With Bipolar Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review of the Prevalence, Associated Factors, and Treatment

Do biological alterations precede the onset of psychosis? A systematic review and meta-analysis of immune, cardiometabolic, prolactin and HPA axis alterations in clinical high-risk for psychosis

Effectiveness of mindfulness based interventions in reducing depressive symptoms across mental disorders: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Response – Building on existing knowledge and redefining rather than abandoning the well-established ‘clinical high risk for psychosis’ prevention paradigm: Commentary on Tiffin and Kelleher “Time to abandon the ‘clinical high risk state for psychosis” (CHR-P) concept in adolescence?”

Comparing the emotional impact of the UK COVID-19 lockdown in very preterm and full-term born children: a longitudinal study

Improving outcomes for people with autism spectrum disorders by reducing mental health problems: The iamhealth research programme including one rct

Upsetting experiences in the lives of neurodivergent young people: A qualitative analysis of accounts of adolescents diagnosed with ADHD and/or autism

The mediating role of social support and resilience in the relationship between social identity and mental health among international students

A community-based participatory research approach to co-designing youth mental health service improvements: A case study from Southern England