Professor Terry Brugha

Terry (Traolach) Brugha MB MD FRCPsych SFHEA Professor of Psychiatry University of Leicester and Consultant Psychiatrist Leicester trained in psychiatry and epidemiology at University College Dublin and at the Institute of Psychiatry and the MRC Social Psychiatry Unit Kings College London where he was mentored by John and Lorna Wing. His achievements include the development of the world's most widely used measure of stressful life events the List of Threatening Experiences and the completion of the world's first national adult general population programme of surveys of the epidemiology of autism spectrum disorder in adulthood and in old age. He leads a long term programme of clinical trials on the prevention of perinatal depression. Terry is also the chair of the WHO advisory committee on the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN) which is developing a revised SCAN (version 3) incorporating autism and ADHD. He has served as Secretary General of the International Federation of Psychiatric Epidemiology and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Summary overview

Epidemiological surveys of adult autism spectrum disorders and other mental disorders (APMS 2007 2014 2022)

Prevention of depression (PoNDER PAWs PfP Crying Babies);

Measurement (psychopathology [WHO SCAN] stressful life events [LTE] social networks [IMSR] autism in adulthood [SCAN 3 Section 1);

Social support networks;

Current Funded studies:

2021 - 2026. Multidisciplinary Training Program on Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Disorders in First Nations (NEUFIN). National Institutes of Health DC USA.

2020-2024: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) 2022 PI Via NATCEN Health and Social Care Information Centre (now NHS Digital) and Department of Health.

2021-2025: Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of a Service to Support the Mental Health and Coping of Parents with Excessively Crying Infants (NIHR131341. Brown J St James-Roberts I et al.) 2019-2023. A multicentre double-blind placebo-controlled randomised trial of SerTRaline for AnxieTy in adults with Autism (STRATA). Rai D et al. NIHR HTA [NIHR127337].

2016-2021: Multi Centre RCT of a Group Psychological Intervention for PoStnatal Depression (ROSHNI-2) Co-I (Husain et al). HTA NIHR. 

Top ten publications.

Brugha TS, McManus S, Bankart J, Scott F, Purdon S, Smith J, et al. Epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders in adults in the community in England. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2011;68(5):459-65.

Brugha TS, Spiers N, Bankart J, Cooper SA, McManus S, Scott FJ, et al. Epidemiology of autism in adults across age groups and ability levels. Br J Psychiatry. 2016;209(6):498-503.

Brugha TS, McManus S, Smith J, Scott FJ, Meltzer H, Purdon S, et al. Validating two survey methods for identifying cases of autism spectrum disorder among adults in the community. Psychol Med. 2012;42(3):647-56.

Brugha TS, Morrell CJ, Slade P, Walters SJ. Universal prevention of depression in women postnatally: cluster randomized trial evidence in primary care. Psychol Med. 2011;41(4):739-48.

Henderson C, Dixon S, Bauer A, Knapp M, Morrell CJ, Slade P, Walters S, Brugha T. Cost-effectiveness of PoNDER health visitor training for mothers at lower risk of depression: findings on prevention of postnatal depression from a cluster-randomised controlled trial. Psychol Med. 2019;49(8):1324-34.

Brugha TS, Smith J, Austin J, Bankart J, Patterson M, Lovett C, et al. Can community midwives prevent antenatal depression? An external pilot study to test the feasibility of a cluster randomized controlled universal prevention trial. Psychol Med. 2016;46(2):345-56.

Brugha T, Bebbington P, Tennant C, Hurry J. The List of Threatening Experiences: a subset of 12 life event categories with considerable long-term contextual threat. Psychol Med. 1985;15(1):189-94.

McManus S, Gunnell D, Cooper C, Bebbington PE, Howard LM, Brugha T, et al. Prevalence of non-suicidal self-harm and service contact in England, 2000-14: repeated cross-sectional surveys of the general population. Lancet Psychiatry. 2019;6(7):573-81.

Spiers N, Qassem T, Bebbington P, McManus S, King M, Jenkins R, et al. Prevalence and treatment of common mental disorders in the English national population, 1993-2007. Br J Psychiatry. 2016;209(2):150-6.

Steel N, Ford JA, Newton JN, Davis ACJ, Vos T, Naghavi M, et al. Changes in health in the countries of the UK and 150 English Local Authority areas 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet. 2018;392(10158):1647-61.

Full list of publications on PubMed (excluding books, other reports): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Brugha+T%5Bauthor%5D&sort=date

Selected official Reports, books, monographs

Brugha, T.S. (2018). The Psychiatry of Adult Autism and Asperger Syndrome. A Practical Guide. Oxford University Press. 

McManus S, Bebbington P, Jenkins R, Brugha TS. (2016). Mental Health and Wellbeing in England: Adult psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. Leeds: Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Brugha, T. Cooper, S.A. Gullon-Scott, F.J. Fuller, E. Ilic, N. Ashtarikiani, A. Morgan, Z. (2016). Autism spectrum disorder. Adult psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. Leeds: Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Broadly psychiatric (population) epidemiology to include a commitment to study design and field work with collection of new original data using instruments with strong validity focusing particularly on autism psychosis depression in adulthood.

PhD/MD intercalated MSc and BSc (within College of Life Sciences UoL).

Prevention of depression. Epidemiology of autism in adulthood.

Associate Editor Psychological Medicine Cambridge University Press

Chair and Chief Editor WHO Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN 3)

MB BCh FRCPsych MD SFHEA