Sameer Jauhar

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Sameer graduated in Medicine from Glasgow university in 2002, having also completed a degree in Epidemiology and Public Health. He trained in Psychiatry in the West of Scotland, and after having failed in a few Fellowhsip applications, secured a Research Fellow position at the Institute of Psychiatry in 2012, to undertake Positron Emission Tomography (PET) studies of the dopamine system in psychosis. He subsequently gained his PhD with Oliver Howes and Shitij Kapur, and continued to work at the IoP (now IoPPN) as a Senior Clinical Lecturer in Affective Disorders and Psychosis. His research has focused on molecular imaging and psychpharmacology, as well as evidence-based medicine. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications (some of which have appeared in high impact Journals, including The Lancet, Lancet Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry and the BMJ). He has been fortunate enough to have been given a Fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh), in the field of depression, and was awarded the Senior Clinical Award from the British Association for Psychopharmacology in 2019, and the Rafaelson Award from the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology in 2022.

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Serotonin hypothesis of depression: balance (and imbalance) is in the eye of the beholder

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The 2022 review by Moncrieff et al on the serotonin theory of depression received a great deal of media coverage. In this blog, Rebecca Wilkinson and Sameer Jauhar shed fresh light on this research and what it means for mental health science and practice.

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Maintenance or discontinuation of antidepressants for depression? Findings from the ANTLER trial

For every 6 people stopping their medication there was one additional relapse compared to those who maintained their antidepressant treatment, suggesting that stopping medication has an increased risk of relapse.

Raphael Rifkin-Zybutz and Sameer Jauhar summarise the recently published ANTLER trial, which explores whether antidepressant maintenance can reduce the risk of relapse in depression.

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Turn on, or tune out? Is psilocybin assisted therapy close to becoming a first-line treatment for depression?

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James Rucker and Sameer Jauhar summarise a recent RCT on the effectiveness of psilocybin assisted therapy versus escitalopram assisted therapy for major depressive disorder.

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Flu pandemics, schizophrenia and the immune system: could history repeat itself?

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Sameer Jauhar summarises a recent narrative review about the risk of schizophrenia linked to the Spanish Influenza Pandemic over 100 years ago. He relates this work to our current pandemic and considers the possibility of a link between COVID-19 and an increased risk of psychosis.

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Open Dialogue: what’s the evidence?

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Sameer Jauhar and colleagues critically assess the evidence for Open Dialogue, presented in a recent narrative review of quantitative and qualitative studies, which finds that most current studies are highly biased and of low quality, and there is an absence of clear data on effectiveness.

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Antidepressant withdrawal: reviewing the paper behind the headlines

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Joseph Hayes and Sameer Jauhar set the record straight on antidepressant withdrawal. They show how the recent review by Davies and Read is seriously flawed and does not accurately portray the data. They conclude that we urgently need clearer evidence on the incidence, severity and duration of any symptoms related to antidepressant withdrawal.

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#UnderstandingPsychosis?

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Sameer Jauhar and Paul Morrison consider the revised Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia report from the British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology, which includes updated sections on definitions, aetiology and treatment.

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Cannabis, cigarette smoking and psychosis: do we need a rethink?

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The relationship between cannabis and psychosis has been one of the hottest topics in psychiatry over the last decade, and with good reason. Policy-makers still disagree on whether cannabis should be legalised or how it should be classified, with Uruguay being the most recent country to legalise it. Drawing broadly from work initiated by Robin [read the full story…]