Biography

Michael King is based in the Division of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Brain Sciences at UCL (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychiatry). He is a psychiatric epidemiologist who has a particular interest in the design and conduct of randomised trials of complex mental health interventions in primary and secondary care. He is joint-director of PRIMENT Clinical Trials Unit (www.ucl.ac.uk/priment), which specialises in the conduct of clinical trials in community settings. He has undertaken a number of trials of the effectiveness of brief talking therapies in primary and secondary health care. He also undertakes observational research which includes national surveys of mental health in the UK, and cohort studies in European populations to understand the risks for mental disorders. He uses analysis of large national data bases (e.g. The Health Improvement Network and the National Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys) to explore prevalence of psychiatric disorders, risk factors, treatment uptake and outcomes. He developed the first risk algorithms for major depression, anxiety disorders and alcohol use disorder which are modelled along the lines of risk algorithms for cardiac disease and other illnesses. He and his colleagues have applied the depression algorithm in research into prevention of major depression in primary care populations. His other interests include the mental health and well-being of gay, lesbian and bisexual people, interventions for patients in the late stages of cancer, the role of religious and spiritual beliefs in mental well-being and gene-environment interactions in the epidemiology of mental disorders.