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

Career history

• 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.

Research interests

• 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.

Esteem factors

• 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

Selected publications

• Executive function and genetic predisposition to schizophrenia - the Maudsley family study
  Birkett P, Sigmundsson T, Sharma T, Toulopoulou T, Griffiths TD, Reveley A, Murray R, American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics 147B:3 (2007) pp. 285-293
• Voice familiarity engages auditory cortex
  Birkett P, Hunter M, Parks R, Farrow T, Lowe H, Wilkinson I, Woodruff P, NeuroReport 18:13 (2007) pp. 1375-1378
• Neurocognitive basis of insight in schizophrenia
  Mysore A, Parks RW, Lee KH, Bhaker RS, Birkett P, Woodruff PWR, British Journal of Psychiatry 190:6 (2007) pp. 529-530
• Executive Dysfunction Screening Test for Neuropsychiatric Disorders
  Parks RW, Thiyagesh SN, Levine DS, Lee KH, Bhaker R, Mysore A, Ingram L, Young C, Birkett P, Pegg E, Woodruff PWR, International Journal of Neuroscience 117:4 (2007) pp. 507-518
• Control of attention in schizophrenia
  Birkett P, Brindley A, Norman P, Harrison G, Baddeley A, Journal of Psychiatric Research 40:7 (2006) pp. 579-588
• Clinical and service implications of a cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) model of psychosis
  Kerr IB, Birkett PBL, Chanen A, Australia and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 37:5 (2003) pp. 515-523