Prof Paul Stokes is a Professor of Mood Disorders and Psychopharmacology at the Centre for Affective Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London (KCL), and an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Prof Stokes studied medicine at the University of Birmingham and completed clinical training in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, London. In his doctoral studies at Imperial College London, Prof Stokes used PET and fMRI neuroimaging to examine the role of neurotransmitter systems in mediating psychosis, addictions and mood disorders. Prof Stokes obtained his PhD in 2011 from Imperial College London and was awarded the 2013 Royal Society of Medicine Psychiatry Section Mental Health Research Prize. Prof Stokes joined the Centre for Affective Disorders, KCL, in 2013 where his main research interest is to use neuroimaging to better understand the neurochemical brain mechanisms which mediate mood disorders and related co-morbid addictions. He leads clinical trials and functional neuroimaging studies to assess new ways of treating mood and cognitive symptoms in mood disorders.

In his clinical work, Prof Stokes is a consultant psychiatrist with the National Affective Disorders Service at the Maudsley Hospital, a national specialist service for people with complex or treatment resistant mood disorders.

Bipolar disorder, addiction co-morbidity, neurochemical mechanisms, functional and neurochemical brain imaging, clinical trials, novel therapies