Explore every episode of the podcast The Lancet Psychiatry in conversation with
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melissa DelBello on metformin for youth with bipolar disorder | 11 Nov 2025 | 00:30:14 | |
Weight gain is a typical side-effect of taking antipsychotics and can have a big impact on people. But for young people with bipolar disorder, metformin isn't commonly prescribed alongside an antipsychotic. In this episode, Melissa DelBello describes a huge randomised trial in the USA on metformin for young people with bipolar disorder taking antipsychotics, looking at its effects over a 2-year period. Click here to read the full article: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(25)00273-1/fulltext Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Camilla Rosan on the COS-P perinatal mental health intervention | 07 Oct 2025 | 00:33:37 | |
Up to 1 in 4 women and birthing parents experience perinatal mental health difficulties, but there isn't enough evidence around interventions that could help them, especially interventions that work with the parent-infant bond or that focus on a broad range of mental health difficulties rather than specific disorders. Camilla Rosan talks about what's needed in perinatal mental health services, and tells us about the trial she just led on Circle of Security-Parenting (COS-P), a group intervention for birthing parents with infants aged under 1 year. Read the full article: Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Mikkel Højlund on antipsychotics polypharmacy | 12 Nov 2024 | 00:21:15 | |
Sophia Davis talks to Mikkel Højlund about research into the prevalence and outcomes of antipsychotics polypharmacy. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Nguyen Tran and David Kinitz on conversion practices and mental health | 30 Sep 2024 | 00:43:32 | |
Nguyen Tran and David Kinitz talk with Sophia Davis about conversion practices for people of sexual and gender minorities and their mental health. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Marco Solmi, Manish Sood, and Nicholas Fabiano on eating disorders and electrolyte abnormalities | 17 Sep 2024 | 00:33:54 | |
Marco Solmi, Manish Sood, and Nicholas Fabiano join Sophia Davis to discuss electrolyte abnormalities in people with eating disorders and their association with physical health outcomes and mortality. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Frank Padberg and Stephan Goerigk on child maltreatment and psychotherapy | 13 Aug 2024 | 00:35:45 | |
Frank Padberg and Stephan Goerigk join Sophia Davis to discuss the effects of child maltreatment on psychotherapy for depression. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Ryan Van Patten on cognition in functional seizures | 13 Jun 2024 | 00:44:11 | |
Ryan Van Patten joins Sophia Davis to discuss cognitive performance in functional seizures. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Sebastian Wolf on exercise and mental health | 15 May 2024 | 00:30:00 | |
Sebastian Wolf joins Sophia Davis to discuss a transdiagnostic exercise intervention for mental health. Continue this conversation on social! Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Jinah Park and Whanhee Lee on heat and emergency admissions | 15 Apr 2024 | 00:23:57 | |
Jinah Park and Whanhee Lee join Sophia Davis to discuss the effects of increasing ambient temperature on hospital admissions for people with mental disorders and developmental disabilities. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Vincenzo Oliva on medications for psychotic depression | 14 Feb 2024 | 00:24:28 | |
Vincenzo Oliva joins Sophia Davis to discuss medications for psychotic depression. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Maike Richter and Nils Opel on narcissistic traits | 15 Nov 2023 | 00:27:34 | |
Maike Richter and Nils Opel join Sophia Davis to discuss narcissistic traits and depressive symptoms in psychotherapy. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Lucy Stephenson, Astrid Gieselmann, and Matthé Scholten on self-binding directives | 18 Oct 2023 | 00:38:06 | |
Lucy Stephenson, Astrid Gieselmann, and Matthé Scholten join Sophia Davis to discuss self-binding directives in psychiatric practice. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Juan Carlos Bazo Alvarez and Claudia Cooper on antipsychotics and dementia | 16 Sep 2025 | 00:27:57 | |
People living with dementia often have behavioural and psychiatric symptoms, such as agitation, and when these are severe, antipsychotics can be prescribed. Guidelines recommend prescribing antipsychotics at the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time, but does this really happen in practice? Juan Carlos Bazo Alvarez and Claudia Cooper's research team looked at primary care data from the UK, to assess prescribing practice, and found that prescriptions are higher and for longer than is recommended. In the podcast, we talk about their study and how things could be improved. Read the full article: Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Gustavo Medeiros on brain-based correlates of antidepressant response to ketamine | 14 Sep 2023 | 00:30:49 | |
Gustavo Medeiros joins Sophia Davis to discuss a review of brain-based correlates of antidepressant response to ketamine, using neuro-imaging studies. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Felicity Waite on psychological therapy for sleep problems in young people at risk of psychosis | 16 Aug 2023 | 00:32:47 | |
Felicity Waite joins Sophia Davis to discuss a psychological therapy for sleep problems in young people at ultra-high risk of psychosis. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Joelle Mak and Ligia Kiss on psychosocial interventions for survivors of human trafficking | 21 Jun 2023 | 00:27:05 | |
Assistant Professor Joelle Mak and Dr Ligia Kiss join Sophia Davis to discuss a new review of psychosocial interventions for survivors of human trafficking. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Rory O’Connor on premature mortality in people with mental illness | 01 Jun 2023 | 00:44:31 | |
Professor Rory O’Connor joins Sophia Davis to discuss a paper on the Gone Too Soon project about premature mortality in people with mental illness or mental distress. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Ian Wong on methylphenidate for children and adolescents with ADHD | 24 Mar 2023 | 00:15:41 | |
Professor Ian Wong joins Sophia Davis to discuss the research on methylphenidate for children and adolescents with ADHD. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Afarin Rahimi-Movaghar on drug use and treatment services in the Eastern Mediterranean | 24 Feb 2023 | 00:19:44 | |
Professor Afarin Rahimi-Movaghar joins Sophia Davis to discuss the systematic review of drug use, drug use disorder, and treatment services in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Richard Morriss on cranial electrostimulation therapy for depression | 29 Jan 2023 | 00:38:15 | |
Professor Richard Morriss joins Sophia Davis to discuss a trial into cranial electrostimulation therapy with Alpha-Stim AID for people with depression. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Protection or Paternalism? | 16 Dec 2021 | 00:11:11 | |
Deputy Editor Dustin Graham talks with Sally McManus and co-authors of a Comment piece about ethical review committees and who gets to decide which questions are too risky for research. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Wellcome Global Monitor | 20 Oct 2021 | 00:06:07 | |
We talk with Professor Miranda Wolpert, Director of Mental Health at Wellcome, about the Wellcome Global Monitor report and its implications for the future of mental health science. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Cultural Competency | 23 Sep 2021 | 00:14:13 | |
Senior Editor Dustin Graham speaks with the authors of a newly published paper on the impact of race and ethnicity on patients' perspectives of their providers' cultural competency and what this means with clinical care. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Kasia Machaczek, Scott Teasdale, and Joe Firth on lifestyle interventions | 12 Aug 2025 | 00:33:13 | |
Why is physical health so important for people with mental illness? In this episode, we talk about a new paper on lifestyle interventions for people with mental illness, covering which aspects of those interventions are beneficial for physical and mental health, and looking at key recommendations for how to implement these interventions in mental health settings. Kasia Machaczek, Scott Teasdale, and Joe Firth talk about their new paper on this topic, which extends the work of a 2019 Lancet Psychiatry Commission on physical health in people with mental illness. Read the Commission: Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| ECT safety | 12 Jul 2021 | 00:20:44 | |
Chief Editor Niall Boyce talks with Tyler Kaster about his groups' recent study looking at the safety and efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy for adults hospitalised with depression. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Debbie Challis on helping children deal with the aftermath of COVID-19 | 20 May 2021 | 00:14:13 | |
Dustin Graham talks with Dr Debbie Challis about the Fading Rainbows project and helping children deal with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Erica Crompton on the importance of first-person stories | 10 Mar 2021 | 00:11:00 | |
Dustin Graham talks with Erica Crompton, journalist and mental health advocate, about the importance of publishing first-person stories from service users. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Michael Wright on mental health in Aboriginal communities | 09 Feb 2021 | 00:33:40 | |
Michael Wright discusses his groups efforts to work with Aboriginal communities in Western Australia to design better mental health services. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Kimberly Sue on increasing access to buprenorphine | 22 Jan 2021 | 00:12:26 | |
Dr Kimberly Sue discusses a new US policy making buprenorphine easier to prescribe for opioid addiction, and the challenges that remain for increasing access in practice. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Youth work environments | 11 Dec 2020 | 00:10:54 | |
Dustin Graham talks with Aaron Kandola about his group's recent Commission with the UK Wellcome Trust to understand how work environments can be improved for young workers' mental health. You can see the Commission at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychiatry/excessive-occupational-sitting-and-mental-health-young-people Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Off-radar youth | 09 Dec 2020 | 00:25:04 | |
COVID-19 related lockdowns can exacerbate problems for children and young people at risk of abuse. Niall Boyce discusses this with Laura Fischer and Jane Chevous how we can improve outreach and empowerment, and help make sure at-risk youth stay on our radars. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| If a patient dies by suicide | 19 Nov 2020 | 00:20:16 | |
We talk with Dr Rachel Gibbons about the challenges that clinicians face in the wake of losing a patient to suicide, and the support we should provide. Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Louise Glenthøj, Ditte Lammers, and Vibeke Andersen on virtual reality-based therapy for auditory hallucinations | 03 Jul 2025 | 00:39:25 | |
What if you could see the voice inside your head? Auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia are often distressing, as the voices are often malicious and unrelenting. In a new type of immersive virtual reality-based therapy, a 3D avatar of the voice is built by the patient and therapist, and it is then confronted together during the sessions. In this podcast, we discuss the randomised controlled trial of a large study into this VR therapy, and we hear from one of the participants in the study and one of the study therapists, as well as the lead on the study. Read the full article: Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Katrina Kennedy and Rose Pollard Kaptchuk on health-care responses for trans and gender diverse people after interpersonal violence | 04 Jun 2025 | 00:33:25 | |
Transgender and gender diverse people experience disproportionately high levels of interpersonal violence, but they also face multiple barriers to receiving quality post-violence care, with knock-on effects for their mental health. Katrina Kennedy and Rose Pollard Kaptchuk talk with Sophia Davis about the values and preferences of trans and gender diverse people around post-violence health sector responses. Their review on this topic will inform new WHO guidelines on the health of trans and gender diverse people, and here they talk about the key themes they found. Read the full article: Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Andrea Iaboni on medications for anxiety in older adults | 14 May 2025 | 00:31:18 | |
Which medications should be the first choice for prescribing for anxiety in older adults? Anxiety is common in older adults, but a lot of research on medication for anxiety is done in younger adults and doesn't take into account the different needs of and side-effects risks for older adults. Read the full Article: Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Philipp Klein on a digital intervention for borderline personality disorder | 15 Apr 2025 | 00:39:33 | |
Sophia Davis, senior editor at The Lancet Psychiatry, discusses research on a new digital therapy for borderline personality disorder with Philipp Klein from the University of Lubeck, Germany. This episode delves into the core experiences of borderline personality disorder, the innovative schema therapy-based digital intervention, and the results from the new study. Learn about the effectiveness, safety, and potential of digital therapies to affect mental health treatment, and their potential to reach more patients. Read the full article: Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Helene Speyer and Marte Ustrup on dissensus in lived experience research | 06 Mar 2025 | 00:29:17 | |
Helene Speyer and Marte Ustrup talk with Sophia Davis about embracing dissensus in lived experience research. Read the full article: Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Peter Fonagy on mentalisation-based treatment for antisocial personality disorder | 18 Feb 2025 | 00:36:58 | |
Peter Fonagy talks with Sophia Davis about a trial of mentalization-based treatment for antisocial personality disorder in men on community probation. Read the full article: Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Ilaria Costantini and Francesca Solmi on young people's body dissatisfaction and mental health | 10 Dec 2025 | 00:35:52 | |
Body dissatisfaction has been rising among adolescents in recent years, and so have symptoms and diagnoses of mental disorders. To help us know what to do about increasing youth mental ill health, we need better understandings of what is driving it, but causal factors are hard to pin down. In this episode, Ilaria Costantini and Francesca Solmi talk about their new study that uses a longitudinal twin study to disentangle the genetic and environmental factors in the associations between adolescent body dissatisfaction and later symptoms of eating disorder and depression. We think about why body dissatisfaction is such a key factor and talk about ways it could be tackled. Click here to read the full article: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(25)00333-5/fulltext?dgcid=tlcom_podcast_acq-december25_lanpsy Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Ethelreda Nakimuli and Peter Jones on the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health | 21 Jan 2026 | 00:36:21 | |
How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect mental health? Now that some years have passed since the pandemic's height, we can learn more from synthesising all the evidence about its shorter and longer term effects. In this episode, Ethelreda Nakimuli and Peter Jones talk about two new papers that gather the past 5 years of work on the pandemic and mental health and policy approaches. They talk about the different effects of the pandemic on different groups' mental health, how mental health care was affected, and about what we can learn for future crises about different types of public health response to the pandemic. Click here to read the full articles:
Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Emily Holmes on an imagery competing task for intrusive trauma memories | 18 Feb 2026 | 00:31:29 | |
How can you stop traumatic flashbacks in just one session? Click here to read the full article: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(25)00397-9/fulltext Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Mike Crawford on a brief intervention for personality disorder | 12 Feb 2026 | 00:33:01 | |
Can personality disorder treatments be reduced to just a few months? Continue this conversation on social! | |||
| Tasdik Hasan on co-production of a Bangla mental health sign language bank | 19 Mar 2026 | 00:32:12 | |
A Health Policy piece in our April issue by Tasdik Hasan and co-authors titled: Co-designing a Bangla Mental Health Sign Language Bank in Bangladesh https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(25)00334-7/fulltext Continue this conversation on social! | |||