Professor Scott Weich

My research interests include psychiatric epidemiology, namely the distribution, causes and consequences of mental disorders. I have published on the socio-economic, ethnic, gender and spatial variation in rates of the most common mental disorders, anxiety and depression. I am also interested in positive mental health and specifically the measurement and epidemiology of mental wellbeing.

I have a particular interest in observational and mixed methods research, and the use of secondary data to answer questions (such as the harms associated with treatment) that cannot be readily addressed, for example, by clinical trials alone. I have been involved in important pharmaco-epidemiological research that has demonstrated harms associated antidepressants, anxiolytic and hypnotics drugs, and melatonin.

I contributed to the UK Adult Psychiatric Morbidity (APMS) surveys in 2000, 2007 and 2014.

I have undertaken studies of compulsion in psychiatry, particularly trying to understand the reasons for increasing use of the Mental Health Act over the past two decades. I am currently leading a study designed to study outcomes associated with Community Treatment Orders using routine national patient-level data.

Other interests include co-production the ways that patient experience data are collected and used in clinical settings, helping parents with mental health problems and the application of technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of NHS mental health care.