Principal Investigator Profile

Professor Colm McDonald

Biography

Colm McDonald is Professor of Psychiatry at National University of Ireland, Galway and Consultant Psychiatrist, West Galway Mental Health Services. He also holds the post of visiting Professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. A graduate of University College Dublin, he completed his basic clinical training with the St. John of God rotational scheme in psychiatry. He then moved to the Institute of Psychiatry in London, where he completed his clinical and research training. At the Institute of Psychiatry he was awarded a Welcome Trust Research Training Fellowship in Mental Health and developed a large family study investigating phenotypic measures of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in patients and their unaffected relatives. He received his PhD in 2004.

He took up his professorial post at NUIG in 2005 and has developed a clinical research program which focuses on investigating neurobiological and neuroimaging abnormalities associated with major psychotic and affective disorders, and the relationship of such abnormalities with genetic risk, illness progression and psychotropic medication. He is Director of the recently established Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory which specialises in the analysis of neuroanatomical data acquired using Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Diffusion Tensor Imaging.

His research projects have been supported by the Wellcome Trust, the UK Medical Research Council, the Royal Society, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression and the Health Research Board. He has published to date 56 papers in peer reviewed journals, 16 invited reviews/book chapters and 3 edited books.

Webpage:  http://www.nuigalway.ie/psychiatry/

Research Areas:

• Clinical research in psychiatry
• Aetiopathogenesis of psychotic illness
• Mapping of brain abnormalities associated with psychotic and affective disorders.
• The relationship of such brain abnormalities to genetic and environmental risk factors, and to course of illness.
• The extent to which psychotropic medications impact upon brain structure and function.
• The association of brain abnormalities with genetic liability and genotypic variation.
• Endophenotypic markers of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
• Neurobiological abnormalities associated with psychotic and affective disorders, including assessments of patients with first episode psychosis and with euthymic bipolar disorder.

Current Projects

1. The Galway Bipolar Study: An Investigation into structural MRI abnormalities and neurobiological markers in patients with euthymic bipolar disorder
2. Neurobiological risk factors in people with first episode psychosis and chronic treatment-resistant psychosis
3. A longitudinal MRI study of regional brain morphometry variation in patients with treatment resistant schizophrenia commencing clozapine
4. Several collaborations on other projects taking place at the Institute of Psychiatry London, Trinity College Dublin and Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.

List of Key Publications:

C.A. Chaddock, G.J. Barker, N. Marshall, K. Schulze, M.H. Hall, A. Fern, M. Walshe, E. Bramon, X.A. Chitnis, R.M. Murray, C. McDonald (in press). Genetic liability to familial bipolar I disorder is associated with white matter micro-structural impairments British Journal of Psychiatry.

L. Emsell, C. McDonald (in press). The structural neuroimaging of bipolar disorder. International Review of Psychiatry.

S. Quraishi*, M. Walshe*, C. McDonald, K. Schulze, E. Kravariti, E. Bramon, R.G. Morris, R.M. Murray, T. Toulopoulou (2009). Memory Functioning in Familial Bipolar I Disorder Patients and their Well Relatives. Bipolar Disorders 11(2):209-14

F.M. Filbey, R.G. Morris, T. Russell, R.M. Murray, C. McDonald (2008) Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of Attention Processes in Presumed Obligate Carriers of Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study. Annals of General Psychiatry, 7:18

D. Drapier, S. Surguladze, N. Marshall, K. Schulze, A. Fern, M.H. Hall, M. Walshe, R.M. Murray, C. McDonald (2008). Genetic Liability For Bipolar Disorder Is Characterised By Excess Frontal Activation In Response To A Working Memory Task. Biological Psychiatry 64(6):513-20

A. Mechelli, D.P. Prata, C.H.Y. Fu, M. Picchioni, F. Kane, S. Kalidindi, C. McDonald, A. Demjaha, E. Kravariti, T. Toulopoulou, R.M. Murray, D.A. Collier, P.K. McGuire (2008). The Effects of Neuregulin1 on Brain Function in Controls and Patients with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. Neuroimage 42(2):817-26

V. Mondelli, P. Dazzan, A. Gabilondo, K. Tournikioti, M. Walshe, N. Marshall, K. Schulze, R.M. Murray, C. McDonald*, C.M. Pariante* (2008). Pituitary volume in unaffected relatives of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Psychoneuroendocrinology 33(7):1004-12

C. McDonald, B. Dineen, B. Hallahan (2008). Meta-analysis of brain volumes in nonpsychotic first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia overemphasises hippocampal deficits. Archives of General Psychiatry 65 (5): 603-604

M. Walshe, M. Taylor, E. Bramon, S. Frangou, K.Schulze, D. Stahl, J. Kravariti, E. Daly, P. Fearon, R.M Murray, C. McDonald (2007). Familial liability to schizophrenia is characterised by impaired academic performance during adolescence. British Journal of Psychiatry 191: 260-261

K.K. Schulze, M.H. Hall, C. McDonald, N. Marshall, M. Walshe, R.M. Murray, E. Bramon (2007). P50 auditory evoked potential suppression in bipolar disorder patients with psychotic features and their unaffected relatives. Biological Psychiatry 62:121–128

S.M. O’Brien, E. Devitt, M. Ahmed, C. McDonald (2007) High prevalence of risk factors for physical illness in a long-stay psychiatric unit. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine 24(2):55-58

K. Schulze, J. MacCabe, S. Rabe-Hesketh, T. Crawford, N. Marshall, J. Zanelli, M. Walshe, E. Bramon, R.M. Murray, C. McDonald (2006). The relationship between eye movement and brain structural abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected relatives. Journal of Psychiatry Research 40: 589–598

C. McDonald, N. Marshall, P. Sham, E.T. Bullmore, K. Schulze, B. Chapple, E. Bramon, F. Filbey, S. Quraishi, M. Walshe, R.M. Murray (2006). Regional brain morphometry in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and their unaffected relatives. American Journal of Psychiatry 163: 478-487

E. Kravariti, T. Toulopoulou, F. Mapua-Filbey, K. Schulze, M. Walshe, P. Sham, R.M. Murray, C. McDonald (2006). Intellectual asymmetry and genetic liability in first-degree relatives of probands with schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 188:186-7

E. Bramon, C. McDonald, R.J. Croft, J.H. Gruzelier, S. Landau, P.C. Sham, S. Frangou, R.M. Murray (2005). Is the P300 wave an endophenotype for schizophrenia? A meta-analysis and a family study. Neuroimage, 27(4):960-8

C. McDonald, E. Bullmore, P. Sham, X. Chitnis, J. Suckling, J. MacCabe, M. Walshe, R. Murray (2005). Regional volume deviations of brain structure in schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder: a computational morphometry study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 186: 369-77

M. Walshe, C. McDonald, M. Taylor, J. Zhao, P. Sham, A. Grech, K. Schulze, E. Bramon, R.M. Murray (2005). Obstetric Complications In Patients With Schizophrenia And Their Unaffected Siblings. European Psychiatry, 20:28-34

R.M Murray, P. Sham, J. Van Os, J. Zanelli, M. Cannon, C. McDonald (2004) A Developmental Model For Similarities And Dissimilarities Between Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorder. Schizophrenia Research, 71: 405-416

C. McDonald, E.T. Bullmore, P.C. Sham, X. Chitnis, H. Wickham, E. Bramon, R. Murray (2004). Association of genetic risks for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with specific and generic brain structural endophenotypes. Archives of General Psychiatry, 61: 974-984

C. McDonald, J. Zanelli, S. Rabe-Hesketh, I. Ellison-Wright, P. Sham, S. Kalidindi, R.M. Murray, N. Kennedy (2004). Meta-analysis of MRI Brain Morphometry Studies in Bipolar Disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 56: 411-417

Books

C. McDonald (Ed.) Maudsley Monograph 50: The Maudsley Family Study of Psychosis – a quest for intermediate phenotypes. Psychology Press, London, 2008.

C. McDonald, K. Schulze, R. Murray, M. Tohen (Eds). Bipolar Disorder: The Upswing in Research and Treatment. Martin Dunitz, London, 2005.

C. McDonald, K. Schulze, R. Murray, P. Wright (Eds). Schizophrenia: Challenging the Orthodox. Martin Dunitz, London, 2004.

'Highly Commended' at the British Medical Association 2005 book competition   
   

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