Richard Drake

Richard Drake, B.Sc.,M.B.,Ch.B.,MRCPsych.,Ph.D.

Prof

Personal profile

Overview

  1. Health Innovation Manchester Mental Health theme Clinical Lead for Physical Heatlh.
  2. Professor of Clinical Adult Psychiatry in the Division of Psychology & Mental Health, School of Health Sciences.
  3. Honorary Consultant at North Manchester Early Intervention Service, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. 
  4. Chair of Manchester Medication Managment Committee.

Biography

Richard Drake trained in Manchester and the Northwest of England. He became a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1996 and won the Laughlin prize and Gaskell Medal. He started his research career working on the SOCRATES trial of cognitive-behavioural therapy in early psychosis. He became a Senior Lecturer in 2002 and a Professor in 2021. 

As an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Manchester Mental Health & Social Care NHS Trust and then Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (https://www.gmmh.nhs.uk/) he was involved in developing rehabilitation services across Manchester. Since 2019 he has been a consultant in North Manchester Early Intervention Service, working full time there March-December 2020.

He is also a clinical co-lead for Mental Health in Health Innovation Manchester, Chair of the Manchester Medication Management Committee and part of the schizophrenia guidelines committee and teaching faculty of the British Association of Psychopharmacology. His aim is to improve translation of research evidence and novel treatments into clinical practice.

Research interests

Richard Drake’s research involves assessing the outcomes of the early stages of schizophrenia and related psychoses. These outcomes include symptoms and physical and neuropsychological difficulties. He also studies treatment of these problems, including how services can tailor treatment to individuals (precision medicine).

Outcome in Early Non-Affective Psychosis
This work has included studies of how attitudes to illness and treatment affect outcome, of delay in starting treatment, and of sex and age on outcome. He has also studied how best to measure symptoms in early illness and the relationships between symptoms over time; and has some experience of longitudinal data analysis methods.

Physical Health Impact of Non-Affective Psychosis
He is working on predicting and treating physical illness in schizophrenia, including changes in circadian rhythm and sleep, and their relationship to cardiovascular health. 

Neuropsychological Impact of Non-Affective Psychosis
His interest in neuropsychological impairment in psychosis led him to conduct trials of cognitive remediation, a way of using computer software to let people practice tasks to improve their concentration, memory, attention, planning and so on. He is involved in developing an app to measure cognitive impairment as it changes.

Precision Medicine in Non-Affective Psychosis
He and other colleagues in Manchester collaborate on the STRATA programme running across the UK to discover ways to pick out which schizophrenic illnesses will respond best to certain treatments (stratification). He is developing with Greater Manchester NHS trusts methods to improve collaboration between staff and service users in choosing medication, in optimising doses of antipsychotics and in monitoring the results of treatment.

Much of his research is pursued via collaborations (see below).

 

Teaching

  1. He teaches on and has a role in governance of the MSc in Applied Mental Health Practice.
  2. He trains medical undergraduates and teaches on schizophrenia. He supervises research and quality improvement options. 
  3. He trains junior doctors and teaches consultant colleagues and other professionals. He teaches at various educational events, including some for the British Association of Psychopharmacology, Mental Health Research Network and for the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
  4. He was formnerly Director of the Psychiatry MSc and the NorthWest MRCPsych course.

My collaborations

Collaborations
He has collaborated with Prof.s Nusrat Husain and Dawn Edge in developing adapted therapies that take account of cultural differences of various ethnic minorities and is involved in a trial of culturally adapted family intervention. He and Prof SW Lewis collaborated with European partners to trial digital approaches to improving medication adherence (online and via smartphones; with Prof M Nordentoft) and on digital approaches to detect relapse and support collaborative prescribing (with Profs S Bucci and J Ainsworth). He collaborates with Drs Trish Gooding, Dan Pratt and Jasper Palmier-Claus on a trials of cognitive behavioural therapy for suicidal thinking; with Prof Katherine Berry on studying ways to improve the availability of psychological treatment on NHS wards; and with Prof Penny Bee and Ms Sophie Faulkner on ways to reduce weight gain due to medication and treatments for poor sleep and daily rhythm in schizophrenia. He is setting up Manchester as a site for multicentre trials of valproate as an adjunct to antipsychotics (ATLANTIS, led by Prof O Howes) and clozapine in children and young people (CLEAR, led by Prof J McCabe).

Collaborators
Professor SW Lewis (Division of Psychology & Mental Health, CENTRUM)
Professor K Lovell (Applied Research Centre, Division of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work, Manchester)
Professor Penny Bee (Division of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work, Manchester)
Professor Kathryn Abel (CENTRUM)
Professor Gillian Haddock (Head of Division of Psychology & Mental Health, CENTRUM)
Prof Katherine Berry (CENTRUM)
Prof Dawn Edge (CENTRUM)
Professor M Nordentoft (Copenhagen Psychiatric Centre, Copenhagen University)
Professor JFW Deakin (CENTRUM, Division of Neuroscience)
Professor Nusrat Husain (CENTRUM)
Professor Rebecca Elliott (CENTRUM, Division of Neuroscience)
Professor Dame Til Wykes (Kings College London)
Professor Richard Emsley (King's College London)
Prof James McCabe (King's College London)
Prof O Howes (KCL)
Dr Trish Gooding (Division of Psychology & Mental Health)
Dr Dan Pratt (DPMH)
Dr Jasper Palmier-Claus (University of Lancaster)
Ms Sophie Faulkner (Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and Division of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work)

Memberships of committees and professional bodies

British Association of Psychopharmacology (teaching faculty, Schizophrenia treatment guidelines committee)

International Early Psychosis Association

Royal College of Psychiatrists

Manchester Medical Society (was Psychiatry section council member, nominated to be President of section)

 

Methodological knowledge

He has experience of designing, conducting and analysing clinical trials, often of psychological treatments. He has been involved in developing trial methodologies, e.g. improved design for proof of concept trials usable for cognition enhancing agents in schizophrenia (within the NEWMEDS consortium) and comparison of measures of cognition for schizophrenia.

He also has experience analysing longitudinal datasets to study how psychopathology evolves and evaluate the predictive value of insight, mood and psychotic symptoms on schizophrenia outcome.

Qualifications

  • B.Sc. in Physiology (1989)
  • M.B.,Ch.B. (1992)
  • M.R.C.Psych. (1996)
  • Ph.D. (2003)

Social responsibility

He advised the charity Rethink Mental Illness on setting up the Innovation Network and have spoken to local groups. He has lectured on schizophrenia and the effect of antipsychotic drugs at various events for mixed audiences including professionals, patients, and carers. He has worked with various advisory groups of service users and carers on developing informative materials and collaborative prescribing methods. he has also collaborated with Dr Dawn Edge & Prof Kathryn Abel on developing methods of informing patients and carers.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 13 - Climate Action
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

External positions

Honorary Consultant Rehabilitation Psychiatrist, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

1 Jan 2017 → …

Clinical Lead for Mental Health in Working Age Adults, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC)

1 Aug 2013 → …

Honorary Consultant Rehabilitation Psychiatrist, Manchester Mental Health & Social Care NHS Trust

1 Dec 20021 Jan 2017

Areas of expertise

  • RM Therapeutics. Pharmacology
  • Psychopharmacology
  • Schizophrenia
  • Adherence
  • RZ Other systems of medicine
  • Psychological Treatments
  • Early Schizophrenia

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Digital Futures
  • Christabel Pankhurst Institute

Keywords

  • Schizophrenia
  • Psychosocial Interventions
  • Adherence
  • Prescribing
  • Neurocognition

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