Dr Helen Fisher, Senior Lecturer and MQ Fellow, MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King's College London

Venue:  Room OS6, Seminar Room, Second Floor, Oakfield House

Title:  The impact of childhood trauma on psychosis outcomes

Abstract:

Increasing evidence suggests that exposure to traumatic events in childhood is linked to the emergence of sub-clinical psychotic symptoms and clinically-relevant psychotic disorders in adolescence and adulthood. However, the impact of childhood trauma on the longer-term outcomes of psychosis is largely unknown. Initial research suggests that childhood trauma is associated with the persistence of sub-clinical psychotic symptoms and worse clinical and functional outcomes amongst those with psychotic disorders. However, these studies suffer from a range of methodological limitations. Therefore, in this talk I will present recent analyses of the impact of different forms of childhood trauma on the course and outcomes of childhood psychotic experiences and clinically-relevant psychotic disorders in adulthood based on longitudinal data from 2 large general population cohort studies and 2 first-episode psychosis studies. Potential explanations for associations between childhood trauma and psychosis outcomes will also be discussed.

 Biography

Dr Helen L. Fisher is a Senior Lecturer and MQ Fellow within the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London. She has a strong interdisciplinary background in psychology, social psychiatry, genetics and epidemiology funded through pre- and post-doctoral fellowships from the MRC and ESRC. She has spent 15 years researching the aetiology and treatment of psychosis in young adults. Her initial research involved evaluating Early Intervention Services for young people with psychosis and then focused on the role of childhood maltreatment in the development and course of psychosis. For her current MQ Fellows award she is extending this work to explore the social, psychological and epigenetic factors that increase and decrease the risk of psychotic experiences persisting during adolescence amongst children exposed to various forms of adversity (e.g., maltreatment, bullying, witnessing domestic violence). She is also a co-investigator of the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study and is utilising this rich dataset to explore epigenetic signatures of adolescent victimisation (ESRC/BBSRC grant with Chloe Wong), multilevel models of adverse environments on trajectories of psychotic symptoms (BA grant with Candice Odgers), the impact of adverse neighbourhoods on epigenetic processes (ESRC studentship with Jon Mill), and links between ambient pollution and mental health (ESRC studentship with Frank Kelly). Email:  helen.2.fisher@kcl.ac.uk; twitter: @HelenLFisher

 ALL WELCOME