Annual Prizes & Awards

Barry Everitt and BAP President, Barbara Sahakian

Lifetime Achievement Award 2012

The BAP Council is delighted to announce that the 2012 Award will be made to Professor Barry Everritt FRS FMedSci.

Barry has worked in the area of Psychopharmacology for more than 40 years and continues his research as Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Cambridge. He is also Master of Downing College, Cambridge. He has published 377 papers and his h-index is 94. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2007 and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008.

Barry served as President of the European Brain and Behaviour Society (1998-2000) and of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society (2003-2005). He was Elected Foreign Corresponding Member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in 1999. He has been an ISI “Highly Cited” Researcher since 2004 and he is frequently invited to give plenary lectures at major international conferences. He has acted as advisor on Psychopharmacology to several counties including Spain, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and France. He was recently awarded the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions (2011) and the 2012 FENS EJN Award (given in recognition of “outstanding scientific work in all areas of neuroscience”)

Barry’s research has contributed immensely to our understanding of the neural mechanisms of reward mechanisms, drug-seeking behavior and relapse. His work has had a tremendous impact on the field, for example he is among the world’s 100 most highly cited neuroscientists. He has been and is in receipt of programme grant funding from major UK competitive grant awarding bodies.

Barry served on the Medical Research Council (MRC) Neurosciences Grants Committee from 1990 to1994 and on the MRC Research Studentships Panel from 1994 to1997 (Chair, 1995-1997). He was on the MRC Advisory Board from 1997 to 2000 and the MRC Neurosciences and Mental Health Board (2001-2005). He has also served on many editorial boards including: - Science (Reviewing Editor (2005-), Physiology & Behaviour - Editor-in-Chief (1994-1999), Psychopharmacology, Behavioral Neuroscience, Behavioural Pharmacology, Journal of Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.

Barry is a longstanding member of BAP and member of Council (1984-1996). As Secretary in 1986 he recruited Susan Chandler and he was BAP President 1992-1994. Barry has made major contributions to the organisation of BAP conferences (including hosting joint meetings) and has been a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Psychopharmacology since its inception.

We are delighted that Barry will accept the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award at the conference dinner in Harrogate on Tuesday 24 July.

Cynthia Fu, Karen Ersche and Marcus Munafo with BAP President, Barbara Sahakian

BAP Psychopharmacology Awards 2012

To reward those working in non-clinical and clinical psychopharmacology.

The Review Panel, comprising BAP Council Members, had an extremely difficult task this year, reviewing applications and nominations from a number of high-quality candidates.

After extensive discussions, it was agreed to present the Awards to the following BAP Members:

Cynthia Fu
(Institute of Psychiatry, London)
Presentation title: Developing neuroimaging-based biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis in depression

Karen Ersche
(University of Cambridge)
Presentation title: Lifting the veil on addiction vulnerability

Marcus Munafò was an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, before moving to the University of Southampton to complete his MSc and PhD. Following this, he returned to the University of Oxford, as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, and later the Department of Clinical Pharmacology. In 2004-2005 he spent 6 months as a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In March 2005 took up a tenured position in the School of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol, where he is now Professor of Biological Psychology and leads the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, and the Psychopharmacology Research Network.

His research interests span molecular genetics and human psychopharmacology, with a particular focus on substance use and mood. He is particularly known for his critical views on the strengths and weaknesses of the psychiatric genetics literature over the past decade, and has described methods for improving the reliability and replicability of molecular genetic findings. In addition, he has developed a range of novel tasks for the assessment of drug- and mood-related cognitions for use in human psychopharmacology studies. Recently, this line of research has included the development of tasks designed to modify these cognitions for therapeutic benefit, potentially in conjunction with pharmacotherapy. He is now exploring the implementation of these tasks on mobile (e.g., smartphone, tablet computer) platforms to exploit these new technologies. Future research will focus on the increasing integration of these research themes. For example, recall-by-genotype designs allow the identification of individuals who differ in underlying biology, while ambulatory assessments allow the precise assessment of cognitions and behaviour in naturalistic settings. These approaches will serve to maximise statistical power and measurement precision, and provide important new insights into the interplay of genotype, substance use, mood.

In 2004 he was awarded the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Young Investigator Award, and in 2005 the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Fellowship Award. He is Past-President of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Europe, and serves on the editorial board of several journals, including as Deputy Editor for Nicotine and Tobacco Research, and Senior Editor for Addiction. He serves on the addiction Scientific Advisory Panel for the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and has provided consultancy for the European Commission on two working groups, on smokeless tobacco products and tobacco additives. He has also advised the Commission on Human Medicines in the UK. Marcus Munafo
(University of Bristol)
Presentation title: Power, precision and phenotype in genetic association studies

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Carmine Pariante collecting the Cambridge Cognition Prize on behalf of Valeria Mondelli

BAP/Cambridge Cognition Award 2012

We launched a new prize this year, supported by Cambridge Cognition, for the development of novel approaches in psychopharmacology. This year’s winner is Valeria Mondelli (Inst of Psychiatry)

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Jason Thomas - Hannah Steinberg Bursary

Hannah Steinberg BAP Conference Bursary 2012

The Hannah Steinberg BAP Conference Bursary is awarded to Jason Thomas (Birmingham)

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Lee Harrison with Jo Neill - Cristian Manuel Olarte Sanchez unable to attend dinner

President's Poster Prizes 2012

I am currently doing a PhD at the University of Bristol. The overarching themes of my thesis are chronic pain, sleep disturbance and cognition. I hope to develop a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between sleep mechanisms, chronic pain and mood disorders with the hope of evaluating sleep disturbance as a therapeutic target for those with chronic pain.

Throughout my PhD I plan to build upon the skills developed during my time at the Psychopharmacology Unit (Uni. Bristol), where my research focused on depression and deep brain stimulation (DBS). My current and previous presentations at BAP have involved work conducted in this developing field. Just recently I reported the results of observed and subjective depression scales from 8 patients selected for the first UK trial of DBS of the sub-genual cingulate and ventral capsule / nucleus accumbens.

DBS was found to benefit patients with treatment resistant depression as shown in both clinician-rated and self- rated depression scales. Significant decreases were found at 60 days of treatment, and after 480 days this trend continued to be significant across the group DBS led to an improvement in somatic, vegetative and psychological symptoms of depression. The observation of a 45% decrease in suicidal ideation is a critical finding, given the observed prevalence in severe and chronic depression. Importantly, it was suggested that the use of self-rated depression scales can under-estimate both the symptomatic and global severity of the depression faced by those with TRD. In future it would be appropriate for scales to include hypersomnia, increased appetite and sleep –wake routine to gather a more holistic view of severe TRD. Nonetheless, DBS in particular brain regions, such as the nucleus accumbens can be of therapeutic benefit to those with TRD, alleviating a range of the debilitating symptoms. My research in the field of severe depression is proving to be of enormous benefit in my present studies of patients with chronic pain.

I was surprised and thrilled to receive the President’s Poster Prize. I would like to thank both my supervisors and my colleagues at Bristol University and the British Association for Psychopharmacology for their encouragement and support. Lee Harrison, Bristol Univ

Comparison of depression outcomes in patients with Treatment resistant depression undergoing deep brain Stimulation: Results from Bristol DBS Depression Pilot Study

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During my undergraduate years in Psychology at the University of Granada (Spain), I developed a strong interest in behavioural neuroscience and psychopharmacology. After my degree I moved to the UK and I studied for the MSc in Research Methods in Psychology at the University of Liverpool. Here I carried out a practical project on the role of the cannabinoid system in obesity. When I finished my MSc I obtained a PhD studentship in behavioural neuroscience at the University of Nottingham, supported by an MRC DTA scholarship, under the supervision of Professor C.M. Bradshaw and Dr H.J. Cassaday. The general theme of my PhD research was the application of a mathematical model of operant behaviour to the assessment of effects of neurobiological interventions on motivational and motor processes. The work presented at the BAP summer meeting was one of the experiments from my PhD project. The results showed that the orexin OX-1 receptor antagonist SB-334867-A, administered systemically or directly into the nucleus accumbens shell, suppressed responding on a progressive-ratio schedule. Quantitative analysis of the results based on a mathematical theory of schedule-controlled behaviour (Killeen PR, 1994, Behav. Brain Sci., 17:105-172) indicated that the antagonist reduced the incentive value of the reinforcer but did not affect the motor aspects of performance. The results are consistent with the notion that orexinergic neurotransmission mediated by OX1 receptor contributes to the regulation of the incentive value of reinforcers (Thompson and Borgland, 2011, Behav. Brain Res. 217:447-453).

Since completing my PhD in 2011, I have been working as a Research Associate at Cardiff University in the laboratory of the Professor J.P Aggleton. In this project (funded by the Wellcome Trust) we are investigating the neurobiological bases of familiarity and episodic memory, and the ways in which they are subserved by two related anatomical structures (perirhinal cortex and hippocampus, respectively).

I have a long-standing interest in psychopharmacology, the reward system and mnemonic processes which I hope I can apply, in the near future, to my current area of work, recognition memory. Cristian Manuel Olarte-Sanchez, Nottingham Univ (now based in Cardiff)

Effect of an orexin-1 receptor antagonist on progressive-ratio schedule performance: evidence for an involvement of orexin-1 receptors in the regulation of incentive value

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Michael Browning and Christoph Anacker with BAP President Barbara Sahakian

Robert Kerwin Bursary 2012

Launched in 2008 in memory of Rob’s long-standing support of BAP, this year's bursaries were awarded to Michael Browning (Oxford) and Christoph Anacker (London).

Freja Bertelsen, Matthew Taylor, Sarah Stuart and Rebecca Lawson with Jo Neill BAP Meetings Secretary

Summer Meeting Poster Prizes 2012

Freja Bertelsen is a PhD student in Aarhus, Denmark, with a bachelor degree in biology and a master degree in biomedical engineering. Her interest in psychiatric disorders was confirmed when she started as a research assistant at Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN), Aarhus University, Denmark in the beginning of 2011. Later the same year Freja held an internship at the psychiatric hospital in Risskov, Denmark, where she had the opportunity to work with autistic children.

In August 2011, Freja started her PhD at CFIN. The purpose of the PhD project is to establish and optimize a new rodent animal model, which may be relevant for autism and epilepsy. Autism is a neurodevelopment disorder, which can be induced during the fetal period by neurotoxic exposure of drugs affecting the GABA system (alcohol, antiepileptic drugs) during pregnancy. The major focus of Freja‘s work at CFIN is thus how the prenatal exposure of the antiepileptic drug valproate can alter the development of the rat brain. Freja studies the neuropathological, behavioural and biochemical changes induced during various development phases in the valproate rat model to test whether it is relevant to the neuropathology of the human autistic brain.

The poster presented at the 2012 BAP meeting summarizes the most important findings to date, including decreased play behavior, decreased serotonin level in the striatum and increased number of cells in the neocortex in valproate rats. These results are consistent with the results found in the human clinic. This new animal model may help to increase our knowledge of autism, improve prevention and lead to novel treatments of autism in the future. Freja Bertelsen, Aarhus Univ

An animal model for the fetal valproate syndrome – With relevance to autism

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Matthew Taylor, Inst of Psychiatry

Early increase in a neuronal integrity marker with antidepressant treatment of major depression: 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy of N-acetyl-aspartate

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Sarah Stuart, Bristol Univ

Investigating the mechanism underlying delayed Versus rapid antidepressant action using a novel rodent Model of affective state-induced memory bias

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Rebecca Lawson, UCL

Habenula responses to aversive stimuli in humans: A high-resolution FMRI study

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Adam Trist, Katie Hazelgrove and Andrew Moriarty with Jo Neill - Sirpreet Kaur Somal unable to attend dinner

Undergraduate Awards 2012

I am currently about to begin the fourth year of my undergraduate psychology degree at the University of Westminster, having spent the last year of my degree on a work placement at the Institute of Psychiatry.
During my placement year I have been working as a research assistant in the department of psychosis studies, with Dr. Paola Dazzan, on the Psychiatry Research and Motherhood programme. The programme is divided into two sections; one investigating risk factors for postnatal depression and the study I have been assigned to researching risk factors of postpartum (or puerperal) psychosis.

As part of my placement I was offered the opportunity to present a poster at the BAP summer meeting. The poster investigated verbal memory in women at risk of postpartum psychosis (women with bipolar or schizoaffective disorder or a personal or family history of postpartum psychosis) compared to a healthy control group. The results suggested that women at risk of postpartum psychosis show verbal memory impairments similar to those of individuals at risk of other psychoses unrelated to childbirth.

Following my work experience, I hope to continue working on the current study during the final year of my degree and to pursue a career in this area of work once I finish. Katie Hazelgrove, Inst of Psychiatry

Verbal memory in postpartum psychosis

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Adam Trist, Nottingham Univ

A potentially novel index of maternal-infant bond: bandwidths of B62DF1 mouse pup ultrasonic vocalisations are decreased by maternal chronic mild stress, effects which are blocked by maternal clomipramine treatment

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Andrew Moriarty, Newcastle Univ

Neuropsychological and HPA-axis correlates of sleep in healthy subjects: Implications for bipolar affective disorder

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Sirpreet Kaur Somal, Univ of Sussex

A proof-of-concept investigation of genotype-Dependent noradrenergic effects on memory

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