Head - School of Psychiatry

Philip Mitchell
MBBS, MD, FRANZCP, FRCPsych

Philip Mitchell was appointed as Professor in the School of Psychiatry at UNSW in January, 1999 and then as Head of School in May, 2002.

Professor Mitchell graduated with first-class honours in Medicine from the University of Sydney in 1977. He received his MD by research from UNSW in 1991 for his studies on the neuroendocrinology of depression.

After working at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as a Professorial Intern, then SRMO, Professor Mitchell commenced postgraduate training in Psychiatry at the Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospitals in 1979. He continued his professional training in psychiatry in London from 1981 to 1983, working initially at St Georges’ Hospital then the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals. It was while working in the UK that he first developed his research interests in mood disorders. On returning to Sydney in late 1983, he first worked as a Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry at Westmead Hospital. He became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) in 1986 and a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1996.

In 1985 he was offered the position of lecturer in the School of Psychiatry at UNSW, being subsequently promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1989 and Associate Professor in 1993. In 1993 he worked for six months as a Guest Researcher in Psychopharmacology at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. He was appointed as an honorary Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in 2001. In 2002 he was awarded the Organon Senior Research Award of the RANZCP.

Professor Mitchell’s major research interests are in the molecular genetics of bipolar disorder, pharmacological and psychological treatments of bipolar disorder and depression, and transcranial magnetic stimulation as a treatment for depression and other psychiatric illnesses. He is a member of an NHMRC-funded program grant team studying depression and bipolar disorder.

Professor Mitchell is currently President of the Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research, an associate member of the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee (ADEC), and serves on the Research Committee of the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund.