Clinical Team

Professor Gin Malhi

Executive and Clinical Director

Professor Gin S. Malhi is the Executive and Clinical director of the CADE Clinic based at Royal North Shore Hospital. He is Head of the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney and is based at the Northern Clinical School. Gin is Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Royal North Shore Hospital and is a senior consultant psychiatrist in the Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service.

Having obtained a degree in Pharmacology and a subsequent medical degree in the UK he completed his general psychiatry training in Cambridge and gained Membership of the United Kingdom Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1996. He then completed his specialist psychiatry training at the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals in London and as a Clinical Lecturer began mood disorders research at the Institute of Psychiatry (UK). Since moving to Australia in 1999 he has continued to conduct clinical research in depression and bipolar disorder and has been a Chief Investigator on a National Health Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Program Grant since 2003. During this time he has published more than 170 papers and has attracted research funding from the ARC and Rotary Foundation that he has used to investigate the neurobiology of Bipolar Disorder. In 2006 he was appointed the Editor-in-Chief of an international journal, Acta Neuropsychiatrica and he currently holds the post of Secretary in the Australasian Society of Bipolar Disorders (ASBD). 

Dr Lisa Lampe

Psychiatrist

Dr Lisa Lampe is a senior lecturer in Psychiatry within the Northern Clinical School of the University of Sydney. She also holds an appointment as a senior consultant psychiatrist in the Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service. Lisa graduated in Medicine from the University of Western Australia in 1985 and obtained her Fellowship of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) in 1992. For many years Lisa was a clinician and researcher at the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital. Her research, teaching and clinical interests include cognitive behaviour therapy and the epidemiology, assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders. She is a popular workshop presenter on these topics for clinicians from a variety of professional backgrounds. She is co-author of a major textbook on anxiety disorders and has also written books for a more general audience. Lisa has been the co-ordinator of the structured psychotherapies component of advanced training in psychotherapy for the NSW branch of the RANZCP, is on the Committee for Examinations of the RANZCP and is a member of the Australian Association of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

Dr Carissa Coulston 

Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Carissa Coulston is a Clinical Psychologist with expertise in diagnosis, therapy, and neuropsychological assessment of people with a wide range of disorders.  These include psychiatric disorders (eg, psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, substance abuse), and neurological conditions (eg, traumatic brain injury, hypoxia, dementia, stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, focal brain lesions, and other conditions in which brain functions are affected).  

Carissa has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Psychology from the Australian National University, in which her research focused on verbal memory processes in children.  She also has a Master of Clinical Psychology degree from the University of Sydney, in which her research examined visual and tactile perceptual abilities in adults with impaired vision, resulting from progressive neurological degeneration of visual-cortical pathways.  She completed her PhD at the University of Sydney in 2006, in which her research investigated neuropsychological aspects of cannabis and other substance use in schizophrenia.

Carissa is registered with the NSW Psychologists Registration Board, and is a member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), APS College of Clinical Psychologists, and International Neuropsychological Society.

Dr Hugh Morgan

Psychiatrist

Dr Hugh Morgan is a clinical senior lecturer in Psychiatry within the Northern Clinical School of the University of Sydney. He is a Director and Consultant Psychiatrist at the Mindcare Centre, a multidisciplinary private mental health practice in Broadway Sydney. Hugh graduated in Medicine from the University of NSW in 1989 and obtained his Fellowship of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) in 1997. His teaching interests have centered on practical skills based learning for cognitive behavioural therapy approaches (CBT) to treat anxiety and depression, particularly for psychiatry registrars and GPs. He is actively involved in developing innovative psychiatric practice approaches and ensuring that assessment and treatment in psychiatry is based on the best available evidence. Hugh believes that through innovative approaches (such as the internet) that there are great opportunities to improve knowledge and provide best mental health treatment to the Australian community.
  

Dr David Bell

NSW Institute of Psychiatry Research Fellow

Dr David Bell is a Psychiatry Fellow in his final year of Psychiatry specialty training, combining a research role with clincial practice in the Lower North Shore Community Mental Health team. He graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Medicine in 2003. He was the recipient of the 2010 Special Research Fellowship grant provided by the NSW Institute of Psychiatry.

David is also a clinical associate lecturer for the University of Sydney. In this role, he lectures and tutors medical students and for various Non-Government Organisations.

David has a strong interest in the role of humour in the engagement and treatment of people with mental illness. His current research is exploring the effects of humour in Royal North Shore Hospital's Acute Psychiatric Unit. He is also completing a Masters in Psychiatry dissertation, exploring attitudes and experiences of mental health professionals with regards to humour.

Ms Vicki Campbell

Department Office Manager

Vicki Campbell is the Department Office Manager. She has an interest in consumer issues and the treatments offered to individuals with mood and anxiety disorders. In particular she has an interest in Internet-Based interventions and their best use.

Vicki's original background was in education with a Diploma in Teaching (UTS)  and she continues to enjoy a ‘teaching' component in her current role.  Vicki also has an interest in media and is the contact person for media events related to the CADE Clinic.

In addition Vicki manages the Academic Department of Psychiatry and provides executive assistance to the head of department.

Ms Karen Searle

CADE Clinic Manager

Karen is the CADE Clinic Manager. Karen's role involves managing all administrative aspects of the Clinic, including liaising with clients and secretarial tasks. She has had a number of years experience in the customer service industry. Karen has a keen interest in people and their well being.

Ms Leigh-Anne Funnell

Discipline Support Officer

Leigh-Anne is the Discipline Support Officer for the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney. She is responsible for assisting the Head of Discipline with the day-to-day running of the Discipline. 

Leigh-Anne has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Atmospheric Science from Macquarie University. She has a strong background in IT and online education systems and is trained in the PRINCE2 Project Management methodology. She is currently studying toward a Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Leigh-Anne has a keen interest in counselling, psychotherapy and group therapy methods.

Research Team

Associate Professor Jim Lagopoulos

Scientific Director

Dr Jim Lagopoulos is an Associate Professor of Neuroimaging in Psychiatry within the Northern Clinical School at The University of Sydney. He is also the Scientific Director of the CADE Clinic at Royal North Shore Hospital. Jim graduated in 1992 from Sydney University majoring in neurophysiology. In 1997 he obtained his Masters of Biomedical Engineering specialising in neuroimaging from The University of NSW. In 2001 he received his PhD in neurophysiology from the Faculty of Medicine at Sydney University. Jim has extensive experience in all aspects of neuroimaging and is often invited to run neuroimaging workshops nationally and internationally. More recently, he has designed and implemented one of the first multimodal fMRI-electrophysiology systems incorporating eye movement and skin conductance monitoring with MRI.

Jim's research interests include the study of interactions between prefrontal cortex and subcortical structures in the regulation of emotion and how these networks are specialised for the detection of behaviourally relevant stimuli. In particular the research focuses on patients with mood and anxiety disorders.

Clinically, Jim has expertise in intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring. Monitoring techniques he employs include electrocorticography in the planning of epilepsy surgery, compound muscle action potentials in spinal deformity surgery and evoked potentials for mapping cranial nerves. Jim has also developed non-invasive methods for determining language and memory lateralization for the purpose of tumour surgery.

Dr Pritha Das

Senior Research Fellow

Dr Pritha Das is a Senior Research Fellow in the Discipline of Psychiatry and is based in the Department of Psychiatry at Royal North Shore Hospital. She completed her PhD in Applied Mathematics in 1999 from the University of New South Wales and has since gained extensive experience in the analysis of functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data using several sophisticated software packages. Her research has afforded her the opportunity to pursue her longstanding interest in neural networks and their dysfunction. She is particularly interested in the neural basis of emotion regulation and the brain networks that subserve mood and anxiety disorders. In recent years she has used an approach based on functional connectivity to interrogate emotion processing networks in schizophrenia patients.

Her current focus is the application and the integration of information from multimodal imaging such as concurrent Magnetic Resonance Proton Spectroscopy and functional MRI to understand a range of neuropsychiatric disorders. Her research has both breadth and depth spanning the spectrum of neuroscience from theory to clinical practice. Dr Das is committed to translational research and the ways in which the many research methodologies she is developing can be made accessible to clinicians and their patients.

Ms Emma Cashman

Research Associate

Emma is a Research Associate at the CADE Clinic. Her role involves assisting in the development and publication of a variety of research projects as well as collaborating with fellow clinicians in the assessment of clients from the CADE clinic.

In 2009, Emma received her Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Psychology from Macquarie University, in which her research examined the role of fear of positive evaluation in social anxiety.

Emma has a particular interest in both the psychological and neurophysiological factors underlying the aetiology of psychopathological disorders.

Ms Michelle Tanious

Research Associate

Michelle Tanious is a Research Associate at the CADE Clinic. Her main role is to coordinate a trial on depression using the anti-oxidant N-acetyl cysteine. She also assists in other CADE research projects and publications.

Michelle was awarded a BMedSci (Hons) from the University of Sydney in 2004, and has worked in a variety of research fields including cardiology, oncology and psycho-oncology. Throughout her experience Michelle developed an interest for psychology and is currently enrolled in the graduate diploma of psychology which she will complete by the end of 2010.

Michelle’s current research focus is on the neurophysiological factors underlying mood disorders as well as pharmacological agents used to treat them.

Ms Kimberly Tufrey

Research Associate

Kimberly is a Research Associate at the CADE Clinic. Her role is to assist in the production of a variety of research publications within the Department of Psychological Medicine and CADE Clinic. She is also involved in the multidisciplinary clinical assessment process of clients attending the CADE clinic.

Kimberly is also the Editorial Assistant of the international journal Acta Neuropsychiatrica, in which she assists the Editor-in-Chief and contributing authors with the publication process.

Kimberly graduated with a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) from the University of New England in 2006, and spent some time working as a clinician for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, involved in the assessment, treatment, and ongoing management of service users in rural NSW.

Kimberly’s current research focus is on the neuropsychology of mood and personality disorders, and she has a particular research interest in disordered body image and the clinical management of eating disorders.

Ms Rita Hitching

Project Officer

Rita Hitching is a Project Officer in the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney. She has a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Psychology focusing on the psychopharmacology of addiction and the dopamine system. She has held several research positions in Britain and Australia, and lectured on undergraduate Psychology programmes. She gained a Masters in Social Research, with an emphasis on survey design/analysis and qualitative research methods. She has held positions at the University of London, University of Hertfordshire, London School of Economics, and The National Lottery Commission.

Rita's research interests include bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, sub-threshold depression, pre and postnatal depression, autism and ADHD.

She is currently working on a research project exploring General Practitioners diagnostic decision making for patients with potential psychological disorders.

Ms Catherine Cahill

Clinical Psychologist

Catherine Cahill is a Clinical Psychologist at the Cade Clinic and at Westmead Hospital. She is also undertaking a PhD at the University of Sydney, investigating the cognitive profile of bipolar disorder during adolescence.

Catherine completed a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology from 2003-2005 at the University of New South Wales while carrying out research into the assessment of bipolar disorder. Subsequent to this, she began working clinically in the area of trauma, in the Traumatic Stress Clinic at Westmead Hospital and she has recently started a private practice in Bondi Junction. Her clinical roles include the implementation of cutting edge treatments for complicated grief and PTSD in various specialist populations. Her research interests lie primarily in the area of adolescent bipolar disorder, as well as investigating cognitive deficits and functional outcomes associated with bipolar disorder across the lifespan.

Ms Racheal Degabriele

Doctoral Student

Racheal Degabriele is a PhD student in the Discipline of Psychiatry at The University of Sydney and is based at the CADE Clinic.  Racheal's PhD project investigates differences in neural patterns in people with and without bipolar disorder using electroencephalography (EEG) and functional MRI. People diagnosed with bipolar disorder are invited to volunteer to take part in this research project. If you would like to volunteer or find out more about the project please write to research@cadeclinic.com

Ms Stephanie Norris

Honours Student

Stephanie has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Sydney majoring in anatomy and histology . She is an honours student within the Department of Physiology based at CADE Clinic. Her research within the Department focuses on the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in a clinical setting and the potential for future therapeutic use in neurodebilitative diseases such as stroke. Healthy individuals are invited to volunteer to take part in this research project. If you would like to volunteer or find out more about the project please write to research@cadeclinic.com.
 

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Acknowledged Contribution:

Dr Mariam Alexander

Dr Mariam Alexander was a NSW Institute of Psychiatry Research Fellow and a Lecturer in Psychiatry within the Northern Clinical School of the University of Sydney and is also a Staff Specialist in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry at Royal North Shore Hospital.

Mariam was awarded MBChB from the University of Birmingham, UK and then went on to specialist training in Psychiatry in London where she achieved the MRCPsych from the British Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Mariam chose to come to Australia to expand her clinical experience and knowledge base and has now been working in Sydney for over three years in both Hospital and Community Psychiatry.

Mariam's research interests lie in the investigation of brain activity, via functional magnetic resonance imaging, in children and young people with anxiety disorders who are engaged in psychological therapy.

Dr Antony Henderson

Dr Antony Henderson was a Research Psychiatrist and Lecturer in the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney. He was awarded MB.BS.BSc from the University of NSW and became a Fellow of the RANZCP in January 2009. Antony was a recipient of the NSW Institute of Psychiatry Research Fellowship for 2008 and was awarded the Pfeizer Neuroscience Research Grant in 2009.

His research interests were the neuropsychological effects of cannabis use in the schizophrenia population. In addition to his interest in the neurosciences, he is undergoing a Masters in Psychotherapy and was actively involved in medical student teaching and registrar training.

Ms Heidi Cobb

Heidi was a Research Assistant at the CADE Clinic. Her role was coordinating a trial on depression and the anti-oxidant N-acetyl cysteine (NAC).

Heidi was awarded a BSc (Hons) degree in Sport, Health, Exercise and Nutrition from the University of Leeds and went onto complete a PG Diploma in Dietetics. She is a UK registered dietitian with 6 years clinical experience in surgery and medicine.

Since relocating to Australia, Heidi has been involved in a research project for the NSW Cancer Council looking into fruit and vegetable intake in primary school children.

Heidi has a particular interest in food and cognition, and the management of eating disorders.

Ms Danielle Adams 

Danielle Adams was a research Psychologist in the CADE Clinic and was involved in both the clinical and research aspects of the clinic. She is also a Clinical Psychologist. Having obtained a Masters of Clinical Psychology from The University of Newcastle in 2001 she has worked in specialist mental health services for approximately five years. She led a project to develop Clinical Practice Guidelines for the treatment of Affective and Psychotic Disorders in the Northern Sydney Central Coast Mental Health Services.

Danielle has a particular interest and expertise in Theory of Mind and treatments both pharmacological and psychological.

Dr Christine Allwang

Dr Christine Allwang was a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at Royal North Shore Hospital. Christine oversaw pharmacological treatment studies within the CADE Clinic. She graduated from Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Germany in 2002 with a medical degree (MD) and has specialized in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine.

Her special interests amongst psychiatric disorders lie in the field of mood disorders and eating disorders.

 Ms Kirsteen Moss 

Kirsteen Moss was a Clinical Research Associate at the CADE Clinic, University of Sydney. Her experience was in electrophysiological EEG and ERP acquisition and analysis. In the CADE Clinic she coordinated neuroimaging research and was invovled with both the clinical and research aspects of the CADE Clinic.

Dr Oddbjørn Sæther 

Dr Oddbjørn Sæther is a biophysicist whose area of expertise includes MR spectroscopy (MRS). His current research focus is in the application of MRI and MRS to the study and diagnosis of brain disorders. He is particularly interested in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders and how these can be investigated using modern neuroimaging techniques.  In addition to in vivo studies, he also applies MRS technology to the study of body fluids, such as cerebrospinal fluid.

He has spent two months as a visiting scholar in the CADE Clinic and ARCHI facility working on spectroscopy projects.

Young In Chung 

Professor Young In CHUNG holds tenure in the Department of Psychiatry at Pusan National University School of Medicine, Busan, South Korea. He is former Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Pusan National University Hospital. His current research focuses on mood disorders, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders including acute and transient psychotic disorder. He has spent two months as a visiting scholar in the CADE Clinic.

Dr Loyola McLean 

Dr Loyola McLean is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist and a Lecturer in Psychiatry. She studied Arts/Medicine at the University of Sydney and went on to specialise in psychiatry. Her interests in both research and clinical aspects of psychosomatic medicine and the psychophysiology of affect regulation are grounded in experience and training in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and the Psychotherapies.

Ms Alison Galletta 

Alison was a Research Psychologist at the CADE Clinic. Her primary role was to administer structured assessments and diagnostic interviews to clients in the CADE Clinic. She was also involved in other clinical and research aspects of the clinic.

Ms Janan Karatas

Janan was a Research Associate at the CADE Clinic involved in research exploring the neurobiological basis of unipolar depression and bipolar disorder.  Janan is concurrently in her third year of a PhD at the Northern Clinical School, University of Sydney. Her PhD involves examining the psychological impact of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).