Professor Simon Wessely  MA BM BCh MSc MD FRCP FRCPsych FMedSci
Professor of Epidemiological and Liaison Psychiatry
Director, King's Centre for Military Health Research.
Vice Dean, Academic Psychiatry, Teaching and Training: Institute of Psychiatry.

biography

Professor Simon Wessely MA, BM BCh, MSc, MD, FRCP, FRCPsych, F Med Sci.


Vice Dean, Academic Psychiatry, Teaching and Training: Institute of Psychiatry


Head, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry

Director, King’s Centre for Military Health Research, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London



Simon Wessely is Professor of Psychological Medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at King’s and Maudsley Hospitals. He started at Cambridge, and read Art for his Part 2, developing an abiding love for Vassily Kandinsky and equal hatred for the work of Marc Chagall. He then attended clinical school at Oxford, followed by two years on a medical rotation in Newcastle being a real doctor and getting medical membership. However, he always intended to study psychiatry, and started training at the Maudsley in 1984, and has not really left Camberwell since, other than a year at the National Hospital for Neurology, and a year studying epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene. He also spent a sabbatical in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.

His research interests are in the grey areas between medicine and psychiatry, clinical epidemiology, psychiatric injury and military health. His first paper was called “Dementia and Mrs Thatcher”, but since then he has published over 550 papers on many subjects (H index = 53). His research has covered epidemiology, post traumatic stress, psychological debriefing, chronic fatigue syndrome, history, chronic pain, somatisation, Gulf War illness, military health and terrorism. In the first part of his career his main areas of research focussed around clinical epidemiology, and with special emphasis on unexplained symptoms and syndromes, most particularly the chronic fatigue syndrome. He established the first NHS only service for sufferers, and the first academic unit in this country dedicated to researching the illness. Over the years the unit has produced research looking at many aspects of the illness, including biochemistry, epidemiology, history, immunology, neuroimaging, neurology, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, virology and other areas.

For the last ten years his research has shifted towards various aspects of military health. Beginning with a a series of multi disciplinary studies into Gulf War Illness, he has also studied psychological stressors of military life, PTSD, risk communication, risk and benefits of military service, screening and health surveillance within the Armed Forces, social and psychological outcomes of ex service personnel, and historical aspects of war and psychiatry. He is Director of the King’s Centre for Military Health Research Unit at King’s College London. In 2006 the unit published the first results of a study of the physical and psychological health of 12,000 UK military personnel, half of whom have served in the Iraq conflict. Further work has looked at issues such as vaccination, risk taking, screening, stigma and barriers to care, stress management, "over stretch", health of reservists, outcomes of treatment, and developing new interventions. The team have just completed a follow up of the cohort, succesfully tracing 10,000 serving and ex serving personnel. This data will give unique information of the impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, transition to civilian life, differences between regulars and reserves, impact of new policies and interventions, and the impact on family life and children.

Professor Wessely is Honorary Civilian Consultant Advisor in Psychiatry to the Army. He is PI on a Home Office funded study of psychological and behavioural reactions to the London bombings and CBRN terrorism in partnership with the Health Protection Agency. He has also led studies on the impact of the polonium incident in London and reactions to swine flu. He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999.

He has recently co authored books on chronic fatigue syndrome, the randomised controlled trial in psychiatry, and a new history of shell shock – but none has yet reached the best seller lists. He is more proud of the fact, contrary to the expectations of his friends and family, he has now completed the Pedal to Paris to raise money for the Royal British Legion on four occasions.

activities and interests

Clinical: Consultation Liaison Psychiatry, psychiatry of physical illness, assessment and management of chronic fatigue syndrome: assessment of health anxiety

Research: Epidemiological studies on the health consequences of service with the UK Armed Forces in the 1991 Gulf War, the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, : Risk assessment and communication: psychosocial consequences of environmental incidents: infection, nature, outcome and prevention of post traumatic stress disorders; how normal people respond to adversity

Teaching: Vice Dean for Academic Psychiatry, with overall responsibility for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. Epidemiology: randomised controlled trials; unexplained symptoms

Administration: Director, King’s Centre for Military Health Research: Ex Director, Clinical Trials Unit; Chairmain, Academic Board: Member, KCL Council;

Advisory: Advisor in Psychiatry for British Army Medical Services: Chair, Nato Working Group on Psychosocial Consequences of Chem/Bio Terrorism: Risk Communication issues for MOD, NATO and others: Science and Media Centre. Member of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Emergency Response (SAPER) and now the Defence Scientific Advisory Council (DSAC).

Charitable: Trustee Combat Stress.

last updated: Wednesday, January 13, 2010