Rachel Chow

I’m a DPhil student supervised by Professor Seena Fazel and Dr Amir Sariaslan in the Forensic Psychiatry research group. My doctoral project focuses on the development and validation of prognostic tools predicting adverse outcomes in substance-induced psychotic disorder. I'm funded by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre.

I hold an MSc by Research in Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and a BSc in Psychology from University College London (UCL). Prior to my DPhil, I was funded by the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre and worked as a Research Assistant investigating treatment-resistant schizophrenia at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (King’s College London).

Beyond my PhD, I apply my research skills in scientific consultancy. As a Life & Health researcher at Swiss Re, I translated epidemiological data on mental health and GLP-1 therapies to support thought leadership publications and inform mortality forecasting assumptions. I also co-authored the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody’s report on ligature deaths in prison with expert panel member Professor Seena Fazel, leading the research and writing. This report informs government policy-making on prison safety and mental health care in England and Wales.