Nuria Laherrán Cantera is a predoctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, where she will join in January 2026 as an Alicia Koplowitz Foundation Fellow. She is also a psychiatrist in advanced clinical training with a strong interest in early intervention and prevention in youth mental health.

She is currently undertaking her doctoral research at the University of Alcalá (Madrid). Her PhD focuses on early psychopathology and the sequence of therapeutic response in psychotic disorders, including longitudinal changes in cold cognition, social cognition and emotion-related (hot) cognitive processes preceding clinical deterioration.

She completed her medical degree in Madrid and her specialist training in Psychiatry at the University Hospital of Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), where she combined clinical practice with teaching and research activities. Alongside her clinical work, she has developed a solid academic profile in clinical research methodology, systematic reviews and early psychosis research.

Her research interests centre on preventive approaches in adolescents and young adults, with a particular focus on modifiable risk factors. She is especially interested in understanding how early cannabis exposure interacts with impulsivity, family risk and vulnerable developmental contexts, and how these processes contribute to the development of later psychopathology.

In parallel, she is actively involved in medical education as a clinical tutor for undergraduate medical students and holds leadership roles within national and European psychiatric trainee organisations.

Research Interests

• Early intervention and prevention in youth mental health
• Child and adolescent psychiatry
• Early-onset psychosis and at-risk mental states
• Cannabis use and other modifiable risk factors in adolescents and young adults
• Cognitive (cold, social and affective) processes in severe mental illness
• Longitudinal clinical trajectories and early markers of deterioration
• Systematic reviews and meta-analytic methods

Research Groups

Adolescent Clinical Outcomes & Research in Neuroscience (ACORN) Group

ACORN is a multidisciplinary group focused on improving outcomes for young people through clinical research that advances early detection, prevention, and intervention in adolescents with mental health difficulties.