Forensic Psychiatry

+ 44 (0) 1865 613165
fazel.pa@psych.ox.ac.uk

3 NIHR grants since 2016

60 publications since 2016

200+ media reports based on research since 2011

Our research includes projects in the epidemiology of mental illness and violent crime, violence risk assessment, prison health, pharmacoepidemiology studies, forensic services, and suicide and self-harm in prisoners and offenders.

Our main focus in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology is to investigate associations and mechanisms for violent crime in severe mental illness, and develop scalable approaches to violence risk assessment. This work is funded by the Wellcome Trust.

We have worked alongside our colleagues at the Karolinska Institute to begin a definitive examination of the relationship between violent crime and both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and increased risk attributable to comorbid substance misuse. We have estimated that the proportion of violent crimes attributable to patients with these diagnoses is less than 5%, a finding which has been used by mental health charities to address patient stigma. Our investigations on the association of mental illness with specific violent crimes suggests the need for much closer collaboration of criminal justice and mental health services.

Although some research has focused on risk factors, the underlying causal mechanisms are still poorly understood. Our current and future programme of work addresses this, and will continue to translate these findings into more effective violence risk assessment for patients with severe mental illness and treatment focused on modifiable risk factors.

Recent Media Activity

"No overcrowding link to prison suicide, study suggests"
BBC News

"Drug and alcohol abuse medications shown to improve patients' lives"
University of Oxford News

"Giving ex-prisoners psychiatric drugs leads to huge cut in reoffending rates, study finds"
The Independent

"Childhood traumatic brain injury and long term outcomes"
BBC World Service [mp3] & PLOS paper

"How To Interpret That Study Linking Violence And Antidepressants"
Huffington Post

"Is there a link between taking antidepressants and increased risk of committing violent crime?"
BBC World Service (from 8:39)

"Ex-prisoners with mental health problems 'more likely to reoffend'"
The Guardian

"Risk of sex offending linked to genetic factors, study finds"
The Guardian

"Clinically depressed three times more likely to commit violent crime"
Reuters

"Schizophrenia associated with increased rates of violence and suicide"
BMJ News

"Mental Illness Can Shorten Lives More Than Chain-Smoking"
National Public Radio

"Medications Cut Violence Among Mentally Ill in Study"
Wall Street Journal

Coin-toss justice, Seena Fazel
New Scientist

Book Review: The Drugs Don't Work?, Seena Fazel
PLoS Medicine Community Blog

"Brain injury survivors three times more likely to die prematurely"
The Guardian; Reuters

"Self-harm 'four times more likely' in female prisoners"
BBC News

Our team

Seena Fazel

Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow
Rongqin Yu

Researcher
Achim Wolf

Honorary Researcher
Mark Toynbee

DPhil student/Academic Clinical Fellow
Howard Ryland

NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow
Denis Yukhnenko

DPhil student
Daniel Whiting

NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow
Jelle Lamsma

MSc (Res) candidate
Gabrielle Beaudry

DPhil Candidate
Helen Hailes

MSc Student

Podcasts

"Mental illness and violence"
Oxford Sparks, Feb 2016

"Seena Fazel discusses how research into the health of prison populations might benefit both prisoners and society as a whole."
The Lancet Psychiatry, Apr 2015 [mp3]

"Seena Fazel discusses his research into prison populations; their mental health problems and suicide risks."
University of Oxford, Feb 2015

"Seena Fazel discusses a two-part Series on homelessness with Richard Lane."
The Lancet, Oct 2014 [mp3]

"Niall Boyce discusses the concept and management of risk in mental health care with Robin Murray, Seena Fazel, and Stefan Leucht."
The Lancet Psychiatry, Jun 2014 [mp3]

"Seena Fazel discusses a population study to assess the effects of antipsychotics on violent behavior and crime."
The Lancet, May 2014 [mp3]

"Seena Fazel discusses new research about epilepsy and psychiatric comorbidity."
The Lancet, Jul 2013 [mp3]

"Seena Fazel discusses the predictive ability of violence risk assessment instruments."
BMJ, Jul 2012

Links

OxRisk.com - Web-Based Risk Calculators

Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute

Google Hangout: Beyond the Impact Factor

Group Members

Karolinska Institute, Stockholm

Paul Lichtenstein
Niklas Långström
Henrik Larsson
Johan Zetterqvist

Primary Care Health Sciences, Oxford
Thomas Fanshawe
Maria Vazquez Montes

Institute of Applied Health Research, Birmingham
Susan Mallett

Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Edinburgh
Lindsay Thomson

pREVIOUS MEMBERS

Previous Postdocs

- Zheng Chang who is now assistant professor at Karolinska Institute. In Oxford, Dr Chang worked on projects that led to 5 papers, 4 in Lancet Psychiatry and one in JAMA.

- Amir Sariaslan who is now senior researcher at University of Helsinki. In Oxford, Dr Sariaslan worked on projects that were published in Molecular Psychiatry, PLoS Medicine, JAMA Psychiatry and Schizophrenia Bulletin.

- Previous DPhil Students - Achim Wolf worked on clinical prediction rules and evidence synthesis. Published 12 articles, including the Lancet, Lancet Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry and now works as a senior researcher at Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) group at the MHRA in London. Katrina Witt works at Monash University as a post-doc.

- Previous MRes Students - Taanvi Ramesh worked on a systematic review and an epidemiological study, and published two papers as a Masters student, including one in Lancet Psychiatry. Isabel Yoon worked on two systematic reviews, which were published in Addiction and J Consult Clin Psychol. E Naomi Smith worked on an umbrella review, which was published in Br J Psychiatry.