Christos Pantelis

Professor Christos Pantelis is the Director of Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre.

Profile
Two years after completing his medical training at the University of Melbourne and St. Vincent’s Hospital, Prof. Christos Pantelis commenced his training in psychiatry at the Royal Free Hospital in London (UK) in 1979. During his training, he spent 18 months as a Research Registrar at University College Hospital to undertake an epidemiological study of schizophrenia in Inner London. He was appointed as a lecturer at Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School (UK) in 1988. In this position, he worked in the Academic Unit at Horton and the Gordon Hospitals, headed by Professor Thomas R.E. Barnes. The unit was involved in a number of research studies in schizophrenia including phenomenology, psychopharmacology, studies on movement disorder, neuropsychological aspects of schizophrenia, as well as epidemiology and social psychiatric aspects of schizophrenia.

In 1992, he was awarded the Lilly Travelling Fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK) and the King Edward's Hospital Fund for London (UK). During this year, he was Travelling Research Fellow with the National Institute of Mental Health (Washington, DC), where he worked with Dr. Richard Coppola and Dr. Daniel Weinberger, developing a technique for volumetric analysis of brain MRI images. He then returned briefly to the UK as a Research Fellow.

After his return from the UK at the end of 1992, Prof. Christos Pantelis worked at the Mental Health Research Institute and at Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital. He established the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research Unit, which is now based at both the Mental Health Research Institute and Sunshine Hospital. He also heads the Academic Unit at Sunshine Hospital. He became a Fellow of the Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1999.

Prof. Pantelis was Director of the inpatient rehabilitation program at Royal Park Hospital until mid-1996. During this time, he was responsible for the inpatient rehabilitation program and was instrumental in developing a comprehensive Model of Care for patients with long-term mental illness, and establishing a region-wide coordinating committee to oversee developments in delivery of services to these patients. He is currently Clinical Director and Principal Specialist for the Adult Mental Health Rehabilitation Unit (AMHRU) at Sunshine Hospital. This is a 26-beds unit for patients with treatment-resistant psychoses. He was actively involved in planning the movement of the Rehabilitation Unit to Sunshine Hospital and in the establishment of an Academic and Research Unit at that site. This included providing expertise into the architectural design of the new clinical and research units. These units opened in early 2000.

Achievements
Prof. Christos Pantelis has established an internationally recognised group in the field of schizophrenia research, particularly in the neuropsychology and neuroimaging of the disorder. He has published numerous papers in peer reviewed journals, including papers in the Archives of General Psychiatry, as well as recent papers in Brain, Brain Research Reviews, Psychological Medicine, and other international journals. He has published a book on schizophrenia from a neuropsychological perspective.

He is highly experienced in the application of both structural and functional brain imaging to psychiatric disorders and has been awarded a number of NH & MRC grants, as well as a major imaging grant from the Ian Potter Foundation. He is also a member of the NH & MRC Brain Network. This work has been internationally recognised with invited talks to the UK and Europe. He is part of an international group looking at the neurobiology of schizophrenia. This work was presented at a number of invited symposia in Europe and USA.

His most recent work challenges the current neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia in showing progressive changes in this disorder. In particular they have demonstrated that brain structural abnormalities are occurring during the transition phase to psychosis in individuals at high risk for developing schizophrenia.