UCL Lunch Hour Lecture | Does racism affect risk of psychosis?

Overview

India Francis-Crossley and James Kirkbride discuss how racism may be linked to psychosis based on evidence from a recent systemic review.

About the lecture

Psychosis is a condition that includes hearing voices, paranoia, and having confusing thoughts. People diagnosed with psychotic disorders often experience difficulties in establishing and maintaining social relationships, are often excluded from employment and education, experience excess physical health problems and have a reduced life expectancy of up to 20 years.

But the risk of psychosis is not equal. Higher rates of psychosis have been observed in people from minoritised ethnic and migrant backgrounds for more than a century, and the question of why this is has preoccupied researchers for almost as long.

Over the past 20 years more researchers have focused on trying to understand why such disparities in psychosis risk exist, identifying one of the risk factors as racism. In this lunch hour lecture India Francis-Crossley and Professor James Kirkbride will discuss how racism may be linked to psychosis based on evidence from a recent systematic umbrella review, and discuss the implications for society, individuals, and public health.


About the speakers

India Francis-Crossley is a PhD researcher in Psychiatric Epidemiology within the Division of Psychiatry at UCL. She is interested in exploring the ethnic disparities in psychosis risk, with a focus on racism as a risk factor. Her research explores the relationship between ethnoracial discrimination and psychosis and aims to elucidate possible mechanisms that underlie the association using epidemiological methods.

Prof. James B. Kirkbride is Professor of Psychiatric and Social Epidemiology in the Division of Psychiatry at UCL. Since 2003, he has led research that explores the social and environmental determinants of psychosis and other mental health disorders, with a particular interest in social inequalities in psychosis risk by person and place. His work has informed national and international guidelines and policy on treating psychosis and has helped redefine our understanding of the environmental causes of severe mental illness. He is Director and Founder of the PsyLife research group at UCL which comprises students, research assistants and post-doctoral researchers investigating social inequalities in mental health using epidemiological methods.


About the chair

Dr Juliana Onwumere is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Reader in Clinical Psychology at King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Her research is focused on understanding and improving health inequalities and is a co-investigator on the Collective Action for Race Equity in Health and Social Care (CARE-HSC), a research initiative dedicated to understanding and tackling racial inequalities in health and social care. She is the current chair of the South London Building Race Equity and Diversity (BREaD) in Research Network that aims to address inequalities and optimise how race inclusion, diversity, and equity are embedded into health research.