Kathryn Abel, Professor of Psychological Medicine at the University of Manchester, is one of the most original mental health researchers of her generation, combining innovative epidemiology and neuroscience to reveal potential mechanisms for some of the most complex and burdensome disorders.
Her rigorous methodologies underpin Public Health England’s ability to monitor prevalence and inequalities in maternal mental health. Other work demonstrates geographical and socioeconomic inequalities in maternal health have profound implications for offspring health and that some interventions actually perpetuate inequalities. As NIHR’s National mental health lead she argued effectively that research recruitment needed to represent population need, by geography, ethnicity and socio-economic status leading to substantial improvements in research recruitment and fostered representativeness by increasing recruitment outside centres-of-excellence.