Professor Matthew Hickman
B.Sc.(Lanc.), M.Sc.(Aberd.), Ph.D.(Lond.)
Current positions
Professor in Public Health and Epidemiology
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
I am the co-director with Isabel Oliver (Public Health England) and Richard Amlot (Public Health England) of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluations, and a member and co-investigator of NIHR School of Public Health Research and DeCIPHER (UKCRC Public Health Centre of Excellence for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement).
My research programme focuses on infectious disease control and the epidemiology and public health consequences of drug use – with active research grants on prevention of Hepatitis C Virus, drug related mortality, and alcohol related harms.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Evaluating supervised opioid antagonist treatment consumption
Principal Investigator
Description
Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT) is used to treat people who are dependent on opioids – usually heroin. Opioids are also a type of drug commonly used in medicine to relieve…Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/01/2024 to 30/06/2025
Opioid overdose deaths: Understanding the lethal interactions between benzodiazepines and opioids to develop new harm reduction strategies
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/07/2022 to 30/06/2025
RC Co-production of an educational package for the universal HPV vaccination programme tailored for schools with low uptake: A participatory study - EDUCATE
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/04/2021 to 30/06/2021
8074 (EZW) MRC via LSHTM Harriet Forbes Fellowship OAFI
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/07/2020 to 30/06/2021
Co-production of an educational package for the universal HPV vaccination programme tailored for schools with low uptake: A participatory study
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/04/2020 to 31/03/2021
Thesis supervisions
Investigating glassware as a choice architecture intervention to reduce alcohol consumption
Supervisors
Investigating the epidemiology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in different settings around the world
Supervisors
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in young adults
Supervisors
Investigating the Relationship between Anxiety and Alcohol Use
Supervisors
Suicide prevention in clinical populations with substance use problems
Supervisors
Surveillance of lower respiratory tract infections within UK care homes, in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Supervisors
“Holding on by the Seat of Their Pants” A Mixed Methods Exploration of Retention, Completion and Recovery in Opioid Substitution Treatment
Supervisors
Quantifying the neurophysiological effects of 5-HT2A receptor activation on cortico-limbic and cortico-striatal network dynamics in rats
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
27/02/2025A qualitative study of Benzodiazepine/Z-drug and Opioid co-use patterns and overdose risk
Harm Reduction Journal
Association of volatile substance, nitrous oxide and alkyl nitrate use with mental health in UK adolescents
British Journal of Psychiatry
Global, regional, and national estimates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) incidence among people who inject drugs and of the number of new annual HCV infections attributed to injection drug use
The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Impact and cost-effectiveness of scaling up HCV testing and treatment strategies for achieving HCV elimination among people who inject drugs in England
The Lancet Regional Health - Europe
Modeling the Potential Health, Health Economic, and Health Inequality Impact of a Large-Scale Rollout of the Drink Less App in England
Value in Health
Related people
Professor Peter Vickerman
Professor of Infectious Disease Modelling
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Dr Adam Trickey
Senior Research Fellow
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Dr Hannah Fraser
Lecturer in Infectious Disease Mathematical Modelling
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Dr Aaron Lim
Senior Lecturer in Infectious Disease Mathematical Modelling
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Dr Jack Stone
Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Mathematical Modelling
Bristol Medical School (PHS)