BAP Officer Details
Honorary General Secretary: Dr Hamish McAllister-Williams, PhD
Newcastle University. r.h.mcallister-williams@ncl.ac.uk
Elected to post in 2007; leaves Council in 2010
Hamish McAllister-Williams is a Reader in Clinical Psychopharmacology in The Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University . Following an undergraduate medical training at the University of Edinburgh , he spent four years in the Department of Pharmacology in Edinburgh working with Professor John Kelly performing patch clamp electrophysiological studies of rat central serotonergic neurones funded by the Wellcome Trust. He was awarded a PhD for this work in 1992. Subsequently, he undertook basic clinical training in Psychiatry at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital before moving to the Newcastle University as a Clinical Lecturer in Psychiatry in 1995. In 1999, he was awarded an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship at Senior Lecture level for studies related to the pathophysiology of mood disorders, particularly relating to the roles of the HPA axis and 5-HT. In addition to this academic work which is ongoing, he is the Lead Clinician of the Regional Affective Disorders Service in Newcastle that specialises in the assessment and management of patients with complex and/or treatment refractory mood disorders.
He has had a longstanding relationship with the BAP, having been a member of the Association since 1990. The BAP is clearly the pre-eminent body in the area of Biological Psychiatry and Psychopharmacology in the UK . Dr McAllister-Williams believes that one of the Association’s greatest strengths is that it actively brings together clinicians, clinical and pre-clinical researchers as well as scientists from industry. This is manifestly evident at the highly successful BAP Annual meetings in the quality and range of the science presented. Such a forum is vital for both senior and junior researchers from all backgrounds. He believes that for the health of the Association this balance of diverse background must be maintained and fostered in the future, so as to ensure the continuing synergy of different perspectives.
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- InVivoStat Statistical Analysis on
23rd August 2010
New BAP Education web page describing InVivoStat: The Statistical Tool for all Psychopharmacologists. Click here to read more InVivoStat - Information for the Public on
4th August 2010
We are pleased to launch our Public Web Pages. These are intended for members of the public with an interest in psychopharmacology. Public Web Page - Review of Mental Health Research on
5th July 2010
In 2009, BAP contributed to the Medical Research Council’s Review of Mental Health Research. The Report has recently been published. A summary report may be found here; MRC Mental Health Research Summary Report. Professor Barbara Sahakian, who will become BAP President-elect later this month, has written an article in the Lancet “A UK strategy for mental health and wellbeing”, also available here; Lancet article