Dr Paul Birkett

Clinical Lecturer in ITS, University of Sheffield
Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, Community Health Sheffield NHS Trust

Telephone: 0114 2261519
E-mail: jean.woodhead@sheffield.ac.uk

I did my undergraduate training at University College Hospital, London, and my psychiatric training at St Mary’s Hospital, London, and the Maudsley Hospital, London. I worked as Consultant Psychiatrist in Bristol for 8 years before moving to Sheffield in 2001.

I am interested in cognitive neuropsychology and functional neuroanatomy in psychiatric illness and its predisposition. Current fields of interest include: speech, auditory function, attention and fluctuations in performance,. I am particularly interested in work that may identify mechanisms responsible for psychotic symptoms.
A separate strand of my work related to my clinical activity concerns the search for factors capable of explaining the overrepresentation of black and ethnic minorities in high care settings such as the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit in which my clinical work is based.

January 2002: invited expert advisor of commissioned review team reporting to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) on Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
April 2007 External peer reviewer for the National Co-ordinating Centre for Research Capacity Development / National Institute for Health Research