Specialist Subject Editor – Psychosis
Dr. Helen Fisher is a Reader in Developmental Psychopathology, a Chartered Research Psychologist, and a British Academy Mid-Career Fellow within the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK. She has a strong interdisciplinary background in psychology, social psychiatry, genetics, and epidemiology, funded through pre- and post-doctoral fellowships from the MRC and ESRC.
Helen has spent 18 years researching the aetiology and treatment of psychosis in young people. Her initial research involved evaluating Early Intervention Services for young people with psychosis, and then focused on the role of childhood maltreatment in the development and course of psychosis.
During her MQ Fellows award she extended this work to explore the social, psychological and epigenetic factors that increase and decrease the risk of psychotic experiences developing and persisting during adolescence amongst victimised children.
Currently, her research programme examines the role of the wider environment (neighbourhood social factors and air pollution) in the emergence of psychotic phenomena and other mental health problems during adolescence; epigenetic signatures of victimisation and psychosis; the phenomenology of childhood psychotic symptoms; predicting which victimised children will have poor functioning and develop psychopathology in late adolescence; improving public understanding of psychosis through immersive art experiences; and early identification of adolescents at risk for depression around the globe.
She is also a co-investigator of the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study and a Research Consultant for the NSPCC.
“It is an absolute honour to be joining the prestigious JCPP team as a specialist editor for psychosis. Psychotic phenomena are surprisingly common during childhood and adolescence and deserve greater research and clinical attention. I’m excited to have the opportunity to read and encourage submissions to JCPP on the aetiology, phenomenology, prevention, and treatment of psychosis during these key stages of development.”
Links on the ACAMH website
JCPP Editorial: Volume 64, Issue 11, November 2023 “Salutogenic mental health science—A phoenix rising from the pathogenic ashes of psychiatry?” by Helen L. Fisher
In Conversation Podcast ‘Psychosis with Dr. Helen Fisher’ Discover how Helen Fisher is involving immersive art to raise awareness of psychosis in young people.
JCPP Editorial: Volume 62, Issue 04, April 2021 “‘The early bird catches the worm’—the need for even earlier intervention and targeted prevention for mental illnesses” by Helen L. Fisher