PROFILE
Professor Sean Hood
Started UWA: 2003
Making a difference in mental health care
Professor Sean Hood is Head of the UWA Division of Psychiatry in the Medical School, and Associate Dean (Community and Engagement) with the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.
Professor Hood’s primary research focus is in clinical psychopharmacology of anxiety disorders, which involves the investigation of medication effects and mechanisms in populations with clinical anxiety disorders.
Professor Hood undertook his undergraduate medical degree at UWA before completing formal postgraduate training in psychiatry in Perth and Bristol in the United Kingdom.
Subsequently, he returned to Perth and set up a Clinical Psychopharmacology laboratory as a clinical academic with UWA’s Division of Psychiatry.
Professor Hood is past Chair of the Australian Pristiq Advisory Board and a member of the Australian Cymbalta, Vortioxetine and Lurasidone Advisory Boards. He is the Australian Board member for the European Masters in Affective Neuroscience degree and Summer Course on Mood, Aggression & Attraction, run jointly by the Universities of Florence and Maastricht.
He is a psychiatrist in public and private practice, and his public practice includes Headship of the SCGH MHU Treatment Resistant Anxiety and Mood Disorder Unit (TRAMD).
Professor Hood maintains an active engagement in medical student education, chairing the Systems’ Committee of the new UWA Doctor of Medicine program prior to implementation in 2014.
Young people are frequently excluded from medication studies but still can be severely impaired by anxiety. Research such as this can help us better target provision of effective mental health care to this under-served group. Professor Sean Hood
Understanding depression for World Mental Health Day
Understanding the relationship between drugs and humans
Clinical psychopharmacology aims to understand how psychotropic drugs work from a molecular level, through to clinical research in patients. To treat mental disorders, an extensive understanding of basic neuroscience, psychopharmacology and clinical medicine is required.
Professor Hood works with a number of local, national and international collaborators in clinical psychopharmacology including Meeting for Minds, the International Master of Affective Neuroscience (Universities of Florence and Maastricht) and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH) Treatment Resistant Anxiety and Mood Disorders (TRAMD) Unit.
Medicine, Advocates, Patients, Science (MAPS) Research Project
The MAPS Project is a collaborative research study to examine the psychiatric genetics of depression and further understand brain disorders and how they relate to mental illness. The aim is for a more precise assessment of the required dosage of medication so patients are treated more efficiently.
You can view a series of meetings on the study and an interview with Professor Hood on the research.
If you would like to take part in planned further interviews contact Meredith Drynan at [email protected].
Funding
2011
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Research Advisory Committee Project Grant
- 'Dual target deep brain stimulation trial for obsessive compulsive disorder – a feasibility study Hood SD, Lind CRP
2010
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Research Advisory Committee Project Grant
- Identifying those at risk of developing depression following acute coronary syndrome: A novel screening strategy Thompson PL, Hood SD, Davidson P, Crittenden J
2007
The University of Western Australia, UWA Research Grants Scheme Hood SD
- The role of serotonin in experimental anxiety in healthy volunteers following chronic administration of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor escitalopram.
UWA Changemaker
Professor Sean Hood undertook his undergraduate medical degree at The University of Western Australia before completing formal postgraduate training in Psychiatry in Perth and Bristol.
Read moreGenetics and mental illness medication research
UWA’s Professor Sean Hood and panel discuss how your genetics could determine the best medication to treat mental illness.
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