Dr Leigh Townsend

NIHR Newcastle BRC PhD Student and Clinical Research Fellow

Leigh is currently a PhD student, working in the Lewy body Lab, supervised by Dr Paul Donaghy, Dr Calum Hamilton and Prof Alan Thomas. He began his PhD in Translational and Clinical Research at Newcastle University in February 2025. This is jointly funded by the Alzheimer's Society and Newcastle BRC. His PhD is focussed on examining the clinical and pathological phenotype of individuals with very late onset psychosis, and using blood and neuroimaging biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease to identify individuals with very late onset psychosis, who are at risk of developing dementia.Leigh is a Specialist Registrar in Old Age Psychiatry (ST4). He did his undergraduate medical training (MBChB), and an intercalated Bachelor's degree in Clinical Sciences (BMedSc Hons), at the University of Birmingham. He did his foundation medical training on the Oxford Academic Foundation Programme. He then spent two years as a research fellow at the LMS Psychiatric Imaging Group at Imperial College London, before moving to Newcastle to start an Academic Clinical Fellowship in Old Age Psychiatry.

PhD Project

Characterising psychosis as a prodrome to dementia

Conferences

• RCPsych International Congress 2019 - London, UK Jul. 2019 Poster presentation: ‘Service evaluation of provision of neuropsychiatric services to OUH Neurosciences department’
• British Neuropsychiatry Association AGM 2019 - London, UK Mar. 2019 Poster presentation: ‘Predictors of care-giver burden in patients with Parkinson’s Disease and impulse control behaviours’
• Orthopaedics section: President’s Prize - Royal Society of Medicine, UK Dec. 2016 Oral presentation: ‘The antimicrobial efficacy and cytocompatibility of a synthetic peptide coating for prosthetic devices’
• Patient Safety section: Students and Trainees Prize - Royal Society of Medicine, UK Dec. 2016 Poster presentation: ‘The antimicrobial efficacy and cytocompatibility of a synthetic peptide coating for prosthetic devices’

Publications

• Townsend L et al. Antimicrobial peptide coatings for hydroxyapatite: electrostatic and covalent attachment of antimicrobial peptides to surfaces. J. R. Soc. Interface, (2017), 14: 20160657  
• Al-Diwani A, Handel A, Townsend L et al. The Psychopathology of NMDAR-antibody Encephalitis in Adults: A Systematic Review and Phenotypic Analysis of Individual Patient Data. Lancet Psychiatry, (2019)
• Townsend L et al. The Tail Wagging the Dog - the Diagnostic Accuracy of First Rank Symptoms. BJPsych Advances (2019)
• Whitehurst T, Osugo M, Townsend L et al. Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of N-acetyl Aspartate in Chronic Schizophrenia, First Episode of Psychosis and High-Risk of Psychosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. (2020)
• Howes O, Whitehurst T, Shatalina E, Townsend L et al. The Clinical Significance of Duration of Untreated Psychosis: An Umbrella Review and Random-Effects Meta-analysis. World Psychiatry. (2020) 
• Osugo M, Whitehurst T, Shatalina E, Townsend L et al. Dopamine partial agonists and prodopaminergic drugs for schizophrenia: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. (2022) 
• Townsend L et al. Brain glucose metabolism in schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 18FDG-PET studies of schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine. (2022)  
• Johnson D, Townsend L et al. Predictors of burden in carers of patients with impulse control behaviors in Parkinson’s disease. Movement disorders clinical practice. (2023) 
• Townsend L et al. Sleep disorders in Lewy body dementia: Mechanisms, clinical relevance and unanswered questions. Alzheimer’s and Dementia. (2023) 
• Hamza N, Reid K, Anderson D, Townsend L. Indoor environmental conditions and likelihood of reported violence and aggression in a purpose-built residential dementia hospital. (2024) 

Awards and Nominations

• Nov 2024 - Newcastle NIHR BRC Accelerator Grant - Awarded competitive funding for addition of MRI assessment CAP study, allowing project to measure MRI markers of neurodegenerative disease in individuals with very late-onset psychosis.
• Nov 2021 - 1st Prize University of Nottingham Institute of Mental Health/Royal College of Psychiatrists Essay Prize, awarded for essay on the theme of the Next Big Thing in Psychiatry Research: “Network biomarkers and Deep Brain Stimulation: a shock to the system”
• 2019 - Finalist, Royal College of Psychiatrists Foundation Doctor of the Year 2019 - Royal College of Psychiatrists General Adult Faculty Small Project Grant, awarded to support research project - ‘Assessing consistency and temporal evolution of psychopathological features in NMDA receptor-antibody encephalitis’
• Nov 2015 - Frank Ker Bequest, University of Birmingham - Competitive scholarship awarded to support intercalated BMedSc in Clinical Sciences.
• Jun 2014 - Careers Network Research Internship Award, University of Birmingham - awarded a financial grant to undertake a summer research internship at University of Birmingham, Department of Psychology RSM Military Medicine section - Royal Society of Medicine - Awarded bursary to attend RSM event: ‘Delivering Veteran Health: Society’s debt to its armed forces’