Angharad de Cates

I am a clinical DPhil student funded by the Wellcome Trust and supervised by Professor Catherine Harmer, Professor Philip Cowen, and Dr Susannah Murphy. 

My research interests include neurocognition, self-harm and psychopharmacology across different mental illnesses - especially involving mood and psychotic disorders.

For my DPhil, I am looking at whether one group of new agents, which act as agonists at the 5HT4 receptor, may work as antidepressants and / or improve cognition in humans.

Current drug treatments for depression are often poorly tolerated with unacceptable side effects, and may be ineffective at treating low mood for some people. Early work indicates that newer agents may work more quickly with fewer side effects, and may help those who have not had a response with previous antidepressants, or those who are have residual cognitive problems. 

To do this, we are using experimental medicine models to examine neurocognitive markers of brain function (such as emotional processing, memory,and thinking processes) using behavioural tasks and brain imaging.

I am a Specialty Registrar in General Adult Psychiatry and am a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Within the department, I co-chair the Family Friendly and Part-Time working group and sit on the Athena Swan Committee, and teach medical students.

Outside of the department, I am also a trainee editor for the British Journal of Psychiatry.