King's Centre for Military Health Research
The King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) is a joint initiative between the Division of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry and the Department of War Studies in the IoP’s sister School of Social Science and Public Policy at King’s College London.
The Centre has three main strands of research: war and health; war and psychiatry; personnel issues and social policy.
One of its major projects has been a prospective investigation of the physical and psychological health of a random sample of 20,000 UK service personnel, comparing those who have served in Iraq with those haven’t. The Centre continues to investigate this cohort, with the addition of a new sample of service personnel who have served in Afghanistan, looking at the physical, social and psychological aspects of military service in the 21st century.
Funders of the Centre’s research include the Ministry of Defence, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Reuters, the BBC, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The Centre runs the MSc in War and Psychiatry that explores the evidence and conflicting explanations for psychological disorders of war. A flyer containing more detailed information about the MSc is available as a pdf: War and Psychiatry MSc flyer
KCMHR is led by Professor Simon Wessely who heads the Department of Psychological Medicine in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry. Professor Christopher Dandeker in the Department of War Studies is co-director.
Simon Wessely is Professor of Epidemiological and Liaison Psychiatry and an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist for both South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (KCH), and is Honorary Civilian Consultant Advisor in Psychiatry to the British Army.
He is a Consultant Psychiatrist with the Chronic Fatigue Research and Treatment Unit, run jointly by KCH and the Section of General Hospital Psychiatry in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry at the IoP. This is a national specialist service undertaking assessment, treatment and research about chronic fatigue syndrome.
In addition he is Director of the Clinical Trials Unit for SLaM and the IoP, which is housed inside the Division of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry.
His main research interests are chronic fatigue syndrome and other unexplained illnesses, and the health consequences of service with the UK armed forces in the 1991 Gulf War and the war with Iraq. He is also interested in how people deal with adversity, and how ordinary Londoners coped with the 2005 bombs.
KCMHR is based at the Weston Education Centre on the Denmark Hill campus of King’s College London, nearby to the IoP.
Find out more about the work of King’s Centre for Military Health Research
King’s Centre for Military Health Research
Weston Education Centre
Cutcombe Road
London SE5 9RJ
kcmhr@kcl.ac.uk
Phone: 020 7848 5351
Fax: 020 7848 5397