Dr Siân Lowri Griffiths BSc, MSc, PhD

Dr Siân Lowri Griffiths

School of Psychology
Research Fellow

Contact details

Email
s.l.griffiths@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@lowrigriffiths_
View my research portal
Address
School of Psychology
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Griffiths is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working with Professor Rachel Upthegrove on the Psychosis Immune Mechanism Stratified Medicine Study (PIMS) and the NIHR ADePP trial. She has extensive experience of working on clinical trials and observational studies within the area of psychosis and youth mental health. 

Dr Griffiths is interested in heterogeneity in treatment outcomes and incomplete recovery in first episode psychosis.

Qualifications

  • Dec 2018. PhD Psychology, University of Birmingham
  • July 2008. MSc Clinical Psychology, Bangor University              
  • July 2007. BSc Psychology with Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor

Biography

Dr Griffiths has extensive experience working on large-scale clinical trials and observational studies within the area of psychosis and youth mental health, including the MRC Command trial, NIHR SUPEREDEN study, European PRONIA study, and presently on the MRC PIMS study and the NIHR ADePP trial. 

Dr Griffiths completed her PhD in 2018 under the supervision of Professor Stephen Wood and Professor Max Birchwood, where she investigated the Predictors of Functional Outcome in first episode psychosis (NIHR Portfolio Study: 2012 - 2014; UKCRN ID: 14396).

Teaching

Dr Griffiths is currently supervising students from the MSc in Mental Health and the MSc in Brain Imaging and Cognitive Neuroscience courses. 

Previously, Dr Griffiths has taught on various modules at the School of Psychology, and at the Medical School. She was previously the module lead for the ‘Adult Neuropsychological Syndromes’ – a final year psychology module.

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Griffiths is open to considering applications or expressions of interest from doctoral students, MRES, MSci, and Intercalated BMedSci students in areas related to her research interests. Students interested in working with Dr Griffiths should contact her in first instance on s.l.griffiths@bham.ac.uk 

Research

Dr Griffiths is interested in the heterogeneity within treatment outcomes and illness trajectories in young people developing mental health problems. More specifically, Dr Griffiths is investigating markers of incomplete recovery and emerging treatment resistance in early psychosis using clinical and cognitive data, functional MRI, immune markers, and novel modelling approaches.

Other activities

  • Member of the International Early Psychosis Association
  • Member of the British Association for Pharmacology

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Griffiths, SL, Bogatsu, T, Longhi, M, Butler, E, Alexander, B, Bandawar, M, Everard, L, Jones, PB, Fowler, D, Hodgekins, J, Amos, T, Freemantle, N, McCrone, P, Singh, SP, Birchwood, M & Upthegrove, R 2023, 'Five-year illness trajectories across racial groups in the UK following a first episode psychosis', Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 569-579. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02428-w

Foley, EM, Griffiths, L, Murray, A, Rogers, J, Corsi-Zuelli, F, Hickinbotham, H, Warwick, E, Wilson, M, Kaser, M, Murray , GK, Deakin, B, Jadon, D, Suckling, J, Barnes, N, Upthegrove, R & Khandaker, GM 2023, 'Protocol for the Psychosis Immune Mechanism Stratified Medicine (PIMS) trial: a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of single-dose tocilizumab in patients with psychosis', BMJ open, vol. 13, no. 3, e067944. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067944

PIMS collaboration 2022, 'Inflammation and brain structure in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders: A Mendelian randomization study', JAMA psychiatry, vol. 2022, no. 5, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0407

PRONIA Consortium, Lalousis, PA, Schmaal, L, Wood, S, Reniers, R, Barnes, N, Chisholm, K, Griffiths, L, Stainton, A, Wen, J, Hwang, G, Davatzikos, C, Wenzel, J, Kambeitz-Ilankovic, L, Andreou, C, Bonivento, C, Dannlowski, U, Ferro, A, Liechtenstein, T, Riecher-Rössler, A, Romer, G, Rosen, M, Bertolino, A, Borgwardt, S, Brambilla, P, Kambeitz, J, Lencer, R, Pantelis, C, Ruhrmann, S, Salokangas, RKR, Schultze-Lutter, F, Schmidt, A, Meisenzahl, EM, Koutsouleris, N, Dwyer, D & Upthegrove, R 2022, 'Neurobiologically based stratification of recent-onset depression and psychosis: identification of two distinct transdiagnostic phenotypes', Biological Psychiatry, vol. 92, no. 7, pp. 552-562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.03.021

the PRONIA consortium 2022, 'The impact of visual dysfunctions in recent-onset psychosis and clinical high-risk state for psychosis', Neuropsychopharmacology, vol. 2022, pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-022-01385-3

the PRONIA consortium 2021, 'Cognitive subtypes in recent onset psychosis: distinct neurobiological fingerprints?', Neuropsychopharmacology, vol. 46, no. 8, pp. 1475-1483. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-021-00963-1

Lalousis, PA, Wood, S, Schmaal, L, Chisholm, K, Griffiths, L, Reniers, R, Bertolino, A, Borgwardt, S, Brambilla, P, Kambeitz, J, Lencer, R, Pantelis, C, Ruhrmann, S, Salokangas, RKR, Schultze-Lutter, F, Bonivento, C, Dwyer, D, Ferro, A, Haidl, T, Rosen, M, Schmidt, A, Meisenzahl, E, Koutsouleris, N, Upthegrove, R & PRONIA Consortium 2021, 'Heterogeneity and classification of recent onset psychosis and depression: a multimodal machine learning approach', Schizophrenia bulletin, vol. 47, no. 4, sbaa185, pp. 1130-1140. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa185

Bashir, Z, Griffiths, L & Upthegrove, R 2021, 'Recognition and management of depression in early psychosis', BJPsych Bulletin, pp. 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2021.15

Griffiths, SL, Leighton, SP, Mallikarjun, PK, Blake, G, Everard, L, Jones, PB, Fowler, D, Hodgekins, J, Amos, T, Freemantle, N, Sharma, V, Marshall, M, McCrone, P, Singh, SP, Birchwood, M & Upthegrove, R 2021, 'Structure and stability of symptoms in first episode psychosis: a longitudinal network approach', Translational Psychiatry, vol. 11, no. 1, 567. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01687-y

the PRONIA consortium 2021, 'The clinical relevance of formal thought disorder in the early stages of psychosis: results from the PRONIA study', European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-021-01327-y

Stokes, I, Griffiths, SL, Jones, R, Everard, L, Jones, PB, Fowler, D, Hodgekins, J, Amos, T, Freemantle, N, Sharma, V, Marshall, M, Singh, SP, Birchwood, M & Upthegrove, R 2020, 'Prevalence of treatment resistance and clozapine use in early intervention services', British Journal of Psychiatry Open, vol. 6, no. 5, e107. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2020.89

PRONIA Consortium 2020, 'The psychopathology and neuroanatomical markers of depression in early psychosis', Schizophrenia bulletin, vol. 2020, sbaa094. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa094

the PRONIA-consortium, Haidl, TK, Schneider, N, Dickmann, K, Ruhrmann, S, Kaiser, N, Rosen, M, Seves, M, Lichtenstein, T, Upthegrove, R, Salokangas, RKR, Pantelis, C, Meisenzahl, E, Wood, SJ, Brambilla, P, Borgwardt, S, Rebekka, L, Kambeitz, J, Koutsouleris, N & Schultze-lutter, F 2020, 'Validation of the bullying scale for adults - results of the PRONIA-study', Journal of Psychiatric Research, vol. 129, pp. 88-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.04.004

Review article

Griffiths, SL, Lalousis, PA, Wood, SJ & Upthegrove, R 2022, 'Heterogeneity in treatment outcomes and incomplete recovery in first episode psychosis: does one size fit all?', Translational Psychiatry, vol. 12, no. 1, 485. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-02256-7

View all publications in research portal