Dr Amy Ferguson is the Network Scientific Coordinator for the Circadian Mental Health Network. She is the central point of contact for anyone involved in the network or those with questions about the network. She is also a Postdoctoral Researcher, based at the University of Edinburgh, with a focus on the underlying genetic relationship between circadian rhythms and mental health. With a background in both molecular and population genetics, she completed a PhD in Psychiatric Genetics at the University of Glasgow, she has a particular interest in the impact of rare genetic variants in the general population. However, she is also very eager to support more lived experience involvement in research design and dissemination, as well as having a passion for making mental health, sleep and circadian science more accessible.
A 28-predictor model using routine mental health records correctly identified risk for psychotic or bipolar disorders around 80% of the time, outperforming existing assessment tools in a study of 127,000 people.
Amy Ferguson summarises a recent study published by researchers in Birmingham, which suggests that persistent shorter sleep in childhood may increase the risk of psychotic experiences.
