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Bessie O'Dell

BA (Hons), GDL, MRes, MPhil.


DPhil Student

I am reading for a DPhil in Psychiatry under the joint supervision of Professor Andrea Cipriani and Professor Ilina Singh. My doctoral project is funded by an Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre PhD Scholarship, and examines ethical issues, patients’ perspectives and trust in precision psychiatry.

As part of my research I am assisting the Oxford Precision Psychiatry Lab in developing an internet-based platform which seeks to tailor antidepressant medication to individual patients, using machine learning algorithms. Specifically, I am interested in the bioethical parameters of this project, as well as in understanding patient preferences towards such a clinical decision-making tool.

Prior to joining Oxford, I undertook an MRes in Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology at University College London in collaboration with Yale University, and was awarded a Distinction. During this degree, I spent one year at the Anticevic Lab in Yale’s School of Medicine, where I used both behavioural data and task-based fMRI to examine spatial working memory deficits in patients with schizophrenia. Prior to this, I read for an MPhil in Criminology at the University of Cambridge (St. Edmund's College), where my thesis in neurocriminology focused on examining what neuroscience can contribute to informing the law on Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility. I also hold a degree in History (BA Hons), and a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).