Treatment of mental health issues has not improved in decades, despite our scientific understanding of the mechanisms which drive mental ill health being the best that it has ever been.
Led by Dr Caitlin Hitchcock, our research group works across the research trajectory to translate our basic science understanding of the mechanisms which predict and maintain psychological difficulties into innovative mental health interventions. Our program spans from experimental work, which elucidates how cognitive processes promote psychological disturbance, to trials of novel psychological interventions. We have a particular interest in the transdiagnostic cognitive mechanisms which predict the primary onset of mental illness and response to psychological interventions.
With members based at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, and the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, we work in a global context to improve mental health interventions. We work closely with Australian and international treatment services to ensure that the latest research advances are used to inform clinical practice, and to increase access to evidence-based treatment in underserved communities.
Current Projects
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Adult survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) experience a high burden of chronic disease. CSA survivors are over 50% more likely to experience cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, type 2 diabetes, chronic pain and obesity, relative to those without abuse histories. Due to their experiences, survivors frequently demonstrate low self-efficacy, and feel a lack of power over their bodies and lives. Scalable interventions which can empower survivors to take back ownership of their bodies and raise health self-efficacy are critical for the 14.6% of Australian adults who report CSA. Harnessing partnership across community organisations, not-for-profits, Go8 universities, and a lived-experience advisory group, this project will evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of Left Write Hook, a survivor-designed and survivor-delivered program currently offered in local communities. To learn more, please visit our dedicated study page.
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We have highly effective psychological therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), however, individuals face multiple barriers to receiving gold-standard treatments. Most prolific of these is long waiting times, due to the limited number of professionals trained in specialist PTSD treatments (e.g., EMDR, trauma-focused cognitive therapy). Medication is largely ineffective for PTSD, and programs which are self-guided or supported by an individual without specialist trauma-focused training are sparse. Here, we have partnered with Phoenix Australia to evaluate a low-intensity, online, memory-based intervention, MemFlex. MemFlex has been demonstrated to treat PTSD symptoms, and ameliorate cognitive difficulties that predict prognosis and impede the efficacy of psychological therapy. The program is currently being used to treat depression, PTSD and psychosis across North and South America, Asia, the UK and Australia. Our current aim is to determine whether offering MemFlex to trauma-exposed individuals on the waitlist for higher-intensity psychological therapies may improve both cognitive predictors of PTSD and post-treatment symptoms, relative to waitlist as usual.
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Despite 75% of mental disorders having their onset in early adulthood, assessment tools commonly used by healthcare services to index mental illness are depression and anxiety centric, were developed for adults or children, and do not consider youth-specific mental health needs (e.g., early stage bipolar or psychotic illness). Cutting edge modelling techniques will be applied to large-scale clinical datasets to identify current challenges faced by youth populations. In co-development with young people, a youth digital mental health service (Orygen Digital) and clinical researchers, we will use these modelling techniques to develop a self-report assessment tool that can index a wider variety of symptom clusters which better capture the developmentally unique characteristics of mental ill health in youth. To learn more, please visit our dedicated study page.
Would you like to take part in research?
If you are interested in participating in future research projects completed by our team, you can register for our participant mailing list here.
Funding
- Australian Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- UK Medical Research Council
- Medical Research Future Foundation, Million Minds Mental Health Research Mission
Research Outcomes
Examples of our research, written for the general community:
Associate Professor Caitlin Hitchcock | Head of Lab
Associate Professor Caitlin Hitchcock is the head of the Mechanisms of Mental Health lab. A/Prof Hitchcock is a clinical psychologist with clinical and research expertise in affective disturbance. Her research programme seeks to translate basic cognitive science toward improved treatment practices, by advancing understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that drive mood disturbance and posttraumatic stress, and drawing from experimental cognitive science to develop novel therapeutic interventions.
Research Team
Alicia Smith
Dr Alicia Smith (she/her) is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne. Her research applies advanced data analytic techniques to mental health data, and is funded by the Australian Medical Research Future Fund. Alicia received her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge.
Patrick Haylock
Patrick Haylock (he/him) is completing a Master of Psychology (Clinical Psychology)/Doctor of Philosophy. He is researching the relationship between young people's ability to recall different types of autobiographical memories, and their ability to solve problems, regulate their emotions and socialise with others. Patrick also has interests in psychotherapy for people with hearing conditions.
Uyen Doan
Uyen Doan is currently completing a Doctor of Philosophy, and is exploring the different ways people remember their past experiences and how these differences may impact their future mental wellbeing. Uyen has an interest in understanding the mechanisms that underlie chronic mental health conditions.
Leo Marcus
Leo Marcus is completing his Master of Psychology (Clinical Psychology)/Doctor of Philosophy. He is investigating the phenomenon of insight during mental navigation and its clinical relevance for patients engaging in therapy. Leo has broad interests in cognitive neuroscience and depression research.
Leilani Frost
Leilani Frost is currently completing her Doctor of Philosophy. Leilani's research involves using natural language processing techniques and large language models to identify individuals with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. She has broad interests in cognitive psychology and machine learning.
Maris Vainre
Maris Vainre (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Researcher. She obtained her PhD from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge. Maris is an experienced researcher interested in the effectiveness of behavioural interventions and their mechanisms of impact, particularly in the field of mental health but also in other domains of public benefit. She specialises in running RCTs, systematic-reviews and meta-analyses and in evaluating and improving the quality of evidence for various interventions and programmes.
Emma Veltman
Emma (she/her) is a Clinical Psychologist and a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Mechanisms of Mental Health lab. She completed her PhD and clinical psychology training in New Zealand at the University of Otago. During her training, her research primarily focused on personality assessment and personality disorders. Since arriving at the University of Melbourne, Emma has expanded her research to look at enhancing clinical interventions to improve outcomes for those experiencing psychopathology. At present she is working on a randomised control trial of Left Write Hook, a survivor-led program that combines expressive writing and non-contact boxing components to empower those with lived experience of child sexual abuse or gendered or other domestic violence to reclaim their lives.
Molly Butler
Molly Butler (she/her) is a Research Assistant. Molly is involved across diverse projects, with focus on improving access to treatment services for young people and trialing innovative new treatments to enhance mental health outcomes for individuals with experience of chronic trauma.
Amelia Kirkpatrick
Amelia Kirkpatrick (she/her) is supporting projects in the lab as a research assistant with lived experience of mental illness.
Alumni
- Dou Hong, former Research Assistant, currently a PhD student, University of Oxford.
- Steph Raad, former Research Assistant, currently works at Orygen.
- Leo Mares, former Research Assistant, currently a D Psych candidate, University College London.
Get involved
We welcome expressions of interest from aspiring researchers and clinicians from disadvantaged backgrounds, and individuals with lived experience of mental ill health who may like to contribute to our research. Our team includes those with disability, diverse gender identities, and neurodivergence.