The Academic Institute at St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS) has published the fourth and final issue of its Research Bulletin for 2025, showcasing a year of impactful research activity across the organisation.
This issue highlights research outputs from staff across psychiatry, psychology, nursing, pharmacy, occupational therapy and allied health professions. It includes recent publications and conference presentations, funding opportunities, an in-depth Article of the Issue on ketamine treatment for depression, and a reflective piece from the archives examining the enduring challenges of recognising depression in primary care.
You can explore some highlights from the latest Research Bulletin below.
A year of impactful research across clinical services
Over the past 12 months, staff across SPMHS have contributed to a substantial body of high-impact research published in leading international journals, including JAMA Psychiatry, The Lancet Psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, BJPsych Open and Psychological Medicine. These outputs reflect the depth and breadth of expertise across the organisation and its commitment to evidence-based, service-informed research.
Psychiatry teams have continued to play a prominent role in interventional research for depression. This includes major contributions from the KARMA-Dep 2 randomised clinical trial evaluating serial ketamine infusions, alongside publications that have informed international debate on ketamine’s place in treatment hierarchies.
Psychology teams have delivered high-quality systematic reviews and psychotherapy research, as well as studies examining adverse childhood experiences, parent-training interventions, trauma, and service-user and family perspectives. Research has also explored psychotherapy processes, overcontrol, and the lived experience of older adults in therapy.
Across clinical services, research by skills facilitators, occupational therapists and pharmacists has supported service development, clinical decision-making and improved patient care, including work on functional assessment pathways, antipsychotic prescribing, medication safety and integrated physical and mental healthcare.
Research presentations and knowledge exchange
Throughout 2025, SPMHS staff represented the organisation at national and international conferences, sharing research across a wide range of topics. These included medication safety, ketamine treatment for depression, advances in attachment-informed practice, eating disorder care, functional assessment in inpatient settings, and innovations in occupational therapy and service design.
These presentations have helped to showcase SPMHS research internationally while supporting collaboration, knowledge exchange and capacity building across mental health services.
Recent research publications by SPMHS staff
Recent publications by SPMHS researchers include work on:
- Flow-cytometric analysis of immune cell populations in depression and treatment outcomes
- Advancing ketamine in the treatment hierarchy for refractory depression
- Experiences of co-supervision practice education placements in occupational therapy
- Development and evaluation of physical health monitoring services for people prescribed psychotropic medication
- Acceptability of a rolling Compassion-Focused Therapy group embedded within an eating disorder day hospital programme
- Ultradbrief pulse electroconvulsive therapy for depression
- Serial ketamine as adjunctive therapy in the KARMA-Dep 2 randomised clinical trial
- Ketamine versus ECT for major depression
A full list of research outputs is available on SPIRE, the SPMHS research repository.
Article of the Issue
Serial Ketamine Infusions as Adjunctive Therapy to Inpatient Care for Depression: The KARMA-Dep 2 Randomised Clinical Trial
The featured Article of the Issue examines findings from the KARMA-Dep 2 trial, which evaluated whether serial intravenous ketamine infusions offered additional antidepressant benefit when added to standard inpatient care.
The study found that while ketamine was associated with rapid symptom reduction, it did not demonstrate superiority over placebo in terms of longer-term antidepressant outcomes when combined with usual inpatient treatment. The authors highlight the importance of cautious interpretation, the need for well-designed controlled trials, and the implications for ketamine’s role in clinical practice.
This landmark study contributes valuable evidence to ongoing international discussions on ketamine treatment and informs future research design in this rapidly evolving area.
From the archives: Recognising depression in primary care
The Bulletin also reflects on a seminal 1987 paper by C.V.R. Blacker and A.W. Clare, Depressive Disorder in Primary Care, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
The article explored the challenges of recognising and diagnosing depression in general practice, highlighting issues that remain strikingly relevant today, including somatic presentations, diagnostic ambiguity and under-recognition of distress. The reflection underscores how many of the structural and systemic barriers identified nearly 40 years ago continue to influence mental health care, reinforcing the ongoing importance of research, education and service development in primary care settings.
Researcher spotlight
Anna Whyte, Research Assistant, Domestic Violence and Mental Health Project, and PhD Candidate, Maynooth University
This issue’s Researcher Spotlight features Anna Whyte, Research Assistant on the Domestic Violence and Mental Health Project at SPMHS and PhD candidate at Maynooth University.
Anna’s research journey began with a background in health and mental health nursing, followed by clinical placements at St Patrick’s Mental Health Services. Her interest in domestic violence research developed through frontline work with survivors in crisis settings and her academic training in international relations and politics.
Her PhD research, supported by an IRC Government of Ireland Scholarship, explores survivors’ and practitioners’ perspectives on the effectiveness of domestic violence orders, with a particular focus on survivors’ sense of safety, coercive control and justice mechanisms. This work draws on her experience navigating the civil and criminal legal systems alongside survivors.
Anna is currently working as a Research Assistant on the Domestic Violence and Mental Health Project at SPMHS in collaboration with Safe Ireland. The project aims to enhance understanding, recognition and referral pathways between domestic violence and mental health services, amplifying the voices of survivors and those working across both sectors. Findings will inform the development of educational resources and practical tools to support trauma-informed, integrated responses.
When asked about priorities for mental health research over the next five years, Anna highlights prevention as critical — particularly community-based and systemic approaches that address gender-based violence, marginalisation and inequality. She emphasises the importance of centring under-represented voices, including migrants, racialised communities, Travellers and LGBTQIA+ people, in both research and service design.
