
Dr. Shitij Kapur
Dean and Head of School
IOP, King's College London
Head, Section on Schizophrenia, Imaging and Therapeutics
IOP, King's College London
Research Focus
I am jointly appointed to the Schizophrenia Division and PET Centre at
the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Rotman Research
Institute. With my colleagues, we have been investigating how
medications used to treat mental illness work, by examining their
effects on the chemicals in the brain.
This work has shown that all antipsychotic medications (used in
schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease) work by blocking dopamine
receptors in the brain. By finding out the exact level of blockage
required to obtain a clinical response in patients with schizophrenia,
my work has shown that much lower levels of medication than
conventionally used, can lead to clinical response and spares the
patients any side-effects. This work is leading to a change in dosing
practice in the clinic.
I am now pursuing this approach in patients with Alzheimer's
disease who need these drugs to ascertain the appropriate level of
medication for them. With colleagues at the Rotman, I am using PET
imaging to study regional changes in the frontal and temporal parts of
the brain in patients with schizophrenia. The future of this research
will involve studying the effects of medications on these brain
connections to understand how these connections change with treatment.
This research is supported by grants from the Medical Research
Council of Canada, the EJLB, the Canadian Psychiatry Research Foundation
and pharmaceutical industry.
Academic Appointments
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2006–Present:
Dean and Head of School, IOP, King's College London, London, UK
-
2006–Present:
Head, Section on Schizophrenia, Imaging and Therapeutics, IOP, King's College London, London, UK
Contact
Institute of Psychiatry
Box P001
M01.31
Main Wing
De Crespigny Park
London
United Kingdom, SE5 8AF Phone: +44 (0)20 7848 0593 Email: PALS
slam.nhs.uk Fax: +44 (0)20 7848 0287