A consultant psychiatrist at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert has been given the title of Honorary Professor by the University of Stirling.
Professor Keith Brown is interested in the treatment of the consequences of psychological trauma and childhood adversity, and their role in the development of psychiatric illness.
He said: "This appointment has opened up further opportunities for working closely with the University to investigate how knowledge in this area amongst clinical students can be improved. Hopefully by doing this we can improve the quality of care for a particularly vulnerable group of patients.”
Professor William Lauder, the Head of the University’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, said: “I am delighted with this recognition of Professor Keith Brown’s close work with the School. He has been linked to the School for many years with joint work around post-traumatic stress disorder. He will now be working with colleagues to embed trauma awareness in our undergraduate curriculum and will contribute to the development of related post-qualifying modules. ”
Professor Brown studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and then trained as a psychiatrist. He was appointed as a consultant in NHS Forth Valley in 1991. He helped set up a clinic for treating psychological trauma shortly after the tragic shootings in Dunblane.
He is the chair of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN), and is a member of the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), the Advisory Board of the British National Formulary (BNF), and the Scottish Trauma Advisory Group.
He has worked with University staff on a number of research projects. The first of these, which was funded by the Chief Scientist Office, found a new treatment - called Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing - was as effective but quicker and better tolerated that the standard treatment of the time.
More recently Professor Brown has worked with the University to investigate other novel treatments, the effect of psychological trauma on quality of life and the prediction of treatment response. He is about to start a study examining the prevalence of childhood adversity in a prison population.
Professor Brown explained that the role of childhood adversity in the development of psychiatric difficulties was now well established but this was not well recognised in clinical practice or training.