Current Research
I am the director of the Psychopharmacology and Emotional Research Lab (PERL) based at the University Department of Psychiatry in Oxford. We are a multi-disciplinary team including cognitive neuroscientists, psychiatrists, psychopharmacologists and psychologists.
We focus on the psychological mechanisms of antidepressant drug action with conventional and novel candidate treatments, challenging the typical division between these different approaches. To do this, we apply an experimental medicine approach, focused on neurocognitive measures of emotional processing in both healthy volunteers and patient samples.
This research helps to integrate psychological and pharmacological views of depression and treatment and has challenged the way in which we typically consider drug treatment for depression to work (see Harmer et al 2017). In addition this research has led to the development of human experimental models to explore the effects of novel drugs for the treatment of depression and anxiety. This work has also been applied in the clinic to provide an earlier marker of SSRI non-response in primary care (Browning et al., 2021).
External Positions
Executive Committee Officer, European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP)
Council, British Neuroscience Association (BNA)
NIHR panel Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation panel member
Wellcome Trust Expert Review Panellist (2016-2019)
Associate Editor for Psychological Medicine
Editorial board membership Biological Psychiatry and Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging
Catherine Harmer
DPhil, MA, DipLATHE
Associate Head of Department (People and Culture), Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College
External Links
Read our Mental Elf blog on SSRIs and Psychotherapy for adolescent depression
https://www.nationalelfservice.net/treatment/
antidepressants/antidepressants-and-
psychotherapy-for-adolescent-depression-
can-they-be-compared-activeingredientsmh/
Watch our short video on SSRI treatment in young people, as part of the Wellcome Trust Commission on active ingredients
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL4q1R53CWI
Hear me chat about serotonin on 'Stronger Stuff'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/
Follow us on twitter @OxfordPERL
Experimental Medicine Hub
We have launched our NIHR BRC experimental medicine hub linking academia and industry to facilitate the use of experimental medicine approaches for treatment development - Experimental Medicine Industry Partnership (EMIP). See our AIM day blogs for our launch event
https://oxfordhealthbrc.nihr.ac.uk/a-collection-of-blogs-from-the-oxford-health-brc-aimday/
Recent publications
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The effect of attentional bias modification on positive affect dynamics.
Journal article
Kraft B. et al, (2024), Sci Rep, 14
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Direct serotonin release in humans shapes aversive learning and inhibition.
Journal article
Colwell MJ. et al, (2024), Nat Commun, 15
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Association between a selective 5-HT4 receptor agonist and incidence of major depressive disorder: emulated target trial.
Journal article
de Cates AN. et al, (2024), Br J Psychiatry, 1 - 8
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12-month neurological and psychiatric outcomes of semaglutide use for type 2 diabetes: a propensity-score matched cohort study
Journal article
De Giorgi R. et al, (2024), eClinicalMedicine, 74
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Beta and theta oscillations track effort and previous reward in the human basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex during decision making.
Journal article
Hoy CW. et al, (2024), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 121
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Does rumination moderate the effect of attention bias modification for depressive symptoms?
Journal article
Hagen HS. et al, (2024), Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, 17
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Acute neural effects of the mood stabiliser lamotrigine on emotional processing in healthy volunteers: a randomised control trial.
Journal article
Martens MAG. et al, (2024), Transl Psychiatry, 14
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Effects of ebselen addition on emotional processing and brain neurochemistry in depressed patients unresponsive to antidepressant medication.
Journal article
Ramli FF. et al, (2024), Transl Psychiatry, 14
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Mortality and adverse events associated with statin use in primary care patients with depression: a real-world, population-based cohort study
Journal article
DE GIORGI R. et al, (2024), BMJ Mental Health