Theme Co-Lead for Dementia, Mental Health and Neurodegeneration
Professor McAllister-Williams is a clinical academic general adult Psychiatrist with a specific interest in mood disorders.
He is a Strategic Research Advisor in Newcastle University and Professor of Affective Disorders, based within the mood disorders research group. He is a past Joint Lead of the Mental Health, Dementia and Neurodegeneration (MHDN) Research Theme in the Faculty of Medical Sciences.
He is the Deputy Medical Director for Research & Innovation in the Cumbria, Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW). For nearly 30 years he worked in the highly specialised Regional Affective Disorders Service (RADS), which provides tertiary level input to patients with complex and/or difficult to treat mood disorders, and he continues to provide strategic support to this service.
He leads the Northern Centre for Mood Disorders (NCMD) which is a collaboration between CNTW and Newcastle University. The aims of NCMD are to enhance research and education related to mood disorders.
His main academic interests continue to centre of mood disorders and their treatment. He has a particular interest in the use of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) both in depression and bipolar disorder, and its effects trans-diagnostically. At a health care level, he is interested in the management of difficult to treat depression and depression treatment pathways.
Professor McAllister-Williams is the Emeritus Lead of the Treatment Resistant Depression workstream of the NIHR Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration (MH-TRC). He is also joint lead of the MH-TRC Mental Health Mission (MHM) Mood Disorders Research Network which includes 15 research clinics spread across the UK. The aims of this network are to increase research (particularly treatment trial) capacity and capability in the UK, and increase patient access to innovative treatment.