Dr Danish Hafeez

Biography

Danish Hafeez is an Academic Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London and a Core Psychiatry doctor at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

His research interests include early psychosis, immunopsychiatry and neuropsychiatry, with a particular interest in how environmental risk factors may influence immune pathways relevant to psychiatric disorders. His research has examined psychotic-like experiences and clinical high-risk states, immune factors in psychiatric disorders, and neuropsychiatric outcomes using large-scale electronic health record data.

Prior to commencing his Academic Clinical Fellowship, Danish worked as a Clinical Research Associate at King's College London on the Wellcome Trust-funded Immune Mechanisms of Antipsychotic Treatment Response study (IMAT).

Danish completed his MBChB in Medicine at the University of Manchester in 2021 and holds a BSc in Psychology (2019). He was awarded a Psych Star fellowship by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2020 and the Lishman Prize by the British Neuropsychiatry Association in 2025.

Research Interests

• Psychosis Studies
• Immunopsychiatry
• Preventative Psychiatry
• Cultural Psychiatry

Key Publications

2026

• Hafeez D, Lynch-Kelly K, Watson C, Williford S, Edwards M, Pollak TA. Psychiatric outcomes after streptococcal upper respiratory tract infection in children. Psychological Medicine.

• Lynch-Kelly K, Hafeez D, Pollak TA. Applying immunity and metabolism to psychiatry: lost, or in translation?: commentary, Lynch-Kelly et al British Journal of Psychiatry.

• Berlot R, Ipavic E, Lynch-Kelly K, Hafeez D, Nicholson TR, Edwards MJ, Pollak TA. Dynamics of the systemic inflammatory response surrounding stressors and the association with neuropsychiatric and somatic outcomes. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
• Watson CJ, Fanshawe JB, Hafeez D, Lynch-Kelly K, Marsh J, Abdat Y, Hamilton H, et al. Psychiatric and behavioural sequelae following encephalitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Brain Communications.

2025

• Jesuthasan J, Watson CJ, Hafeez D, Lynch-Kelly K, Danese A, Pollak TA. Childhood adversity as a risk factor for autoimmune disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis with implications for psychiatry. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

2023

• Qurashi I, Chaudhry IB, Khoso AB, Husain MO, Hafeez D, Kiran T, Lane S, et al. A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of minocycline and/or omega-3 fatty acids added to treatment as usual for at risk Mental States: The NAYAB study. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

2021

• Badenoch JB, Rengasamy ER, Watson C, Jansen K, Chakraborty S, Sundaram RD, Hafeez D, et al. Persistent neuropsychiatric symptoms after COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Brain Communications.
• Rogers JP, Watson CJ, Badenoch J, Cross B, Butler M, Song J, Hafeez D, et al. Neurology and neuropsychiatry of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the early literature reveals frequent CNS manifestations and key emerging narratives. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

2020

• Hafeez D, Yung AR. Early persistence of psychotic-like experiences in a community sample of adolescents. Early Intervention in Psychiatry.
• Hafeez D, Song J, Watson C, Rooney A, Nicholson TR. Increased ethnicity and socioeconomic data collection required in stroke associated with COVID-19. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.