In its third issue of the Research Bulletin for 2026, our Academic Institute shares research activity and findings from our team in St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS).
The autumn 2026 issue highlights the breadth of research taking place across SPMHS, with 31 research outputs produced so far this year, including 18 peer-reviewed publications and 13 conference presentations.
As well as sharing a range of recent research publications, this issue focuses on the lived experience of receiving a personality disorder diagnosis and puts a research spotlight on Dr Conal Twomey, Senior Clinical Psychologist and Adjunct Associate Professor at UCD.
You can see some highlights from the latest Research Bulletin below.
Research publications
Recent research publications shared in the Research Bulletin cover a wide range of topics, including:
- A turning point or a terminus - a qualitative survey exploring the subjective experiences of those receiving a diagnosis of personality disorder. Click here.
- Education and research practices in Irish hospital pharmacies: a national service evaluation by the Hospital Pharmacists Association of Ireland Specialist Interest Group on Education and Research. Click here.
- Re-evaluating response rates, time to reorientation and inadequate seizure duration in magnetic seizure therapy for schizophrenia and major depression. Click here.
- Relapse Prevention After Successful ECT for Depression: The Role of Lithium and Continuation/Maintenance ECT. Click here.
- The proportion of people with primary affective disorders presenting to early intervention services: systematic review and meta-analysis. Click here.
- The Comparative Effectiveness of a Group Therapy for Overcontrol (Group Radical
Openness) When Delivered In-Person vs. Remotely: Findings from a Retrospective Naturalistic Service Evaluation. Click here.
- Structured peer engagement for early-stage medical students provides a safe space and creates a sense of community, combatting imposter syndrome and improving wellbeing. Click here.
These publications can be accessed in SPIRE, our research repository.
SPMHS staff have also maintained an active presence at national and international conferences, including the Horatio Conference, the Hospital Pharmacists Association of Ireland Conference and the Trinity Health and Education Conference.
Article of the issue
A turning point or a terminus - a qualitative survey exploring the subjective experiences of those receiving a diagnosis of personality disorder
Authors: Dr Molly Bredin, Dr Sorcha McManus and Dr Gavin Rush
Background
Bredin, McManus and Rush studied how people experience being diagnosed with a personality disorder (PD) in an Irish mental health setting.
Conducted at St Patrick's University Hospital, the study explored how people experienced the assessment and diagnosis process, and how the diagnosis affected their lives afterward.
The authors note that personality disorders are common but often under-diagnosed, due to stigma, pessimism about treatment, and limited services.
Why it matters
The study shows that the impact of a personality disorder diagnosis depends less on the diagnosis itself and more on how it is explained and what happens next. Diagnosis can act as a "turning point" when it brings understanding, validation and access to effective treatment, but can feel like a "terminus" when delivered without adequate explanation or a clear path to treatment.
These findings support the need for a more collaborative approach; repeated psychoeducation, discussion of the person's individual formulation, recognition of their strengths and resilience, and a clear link between diagnosis and treatment.
The authors also call for tackling stigma among both the public and healthcare professionals and improving access to appropriate services in Ireland.
Researcher spotlight
Dr Conal Twomey, Senior Clinical Psychologist and Adjunct Associate Professor (UCD)
Tell us about your research career to date
I took the "scenic route" to becoming a clinical psychologist which allowed me to build up research experience along the way. During my undergraduate Psychology degree at UCD, I completed a research thesis exploring whether people's wellbeing could be predicted by how they smiled in photographs.
It turns out it couldn't! I followed this with an MLitt at UCD, evaluating an online CBT programme for depression, which dovetailed with a research-focused assistant psychologist role in the Roscommon Primary Care Psychology Department.
I then moved to the University of Southampton on a Marie Curie PhD fellowship, researching factors influencing mental health service use. I later returned to UCD for clinical psychology training, where I developed and evaluated a personality-based group programme ("DEEPdown"), broadly based around normalizing diversity in personality.
Since joining St Patrick's Mental Health Services in 2022, my research has become increasingly embedded in clinical practice, particularly around group interventions and routinely collected clinical data.
What are you currently working on?
Along with colleagues, I currently have two papers in their final stages. The first paper investigates patterns in clinical outcomes across seven of our psychology group programmes. Here we found that group members attending the same group tended to have more similar outcomes than members of different groups. This finding indicates that the particular group attended has an important impact on individual outcomes and calls for a greater clinician focus on the functioning of the group as a whole, alongside individual progress.
The other paper, a clinician survey, aims to integrate broad principles of change into daily psychotherapy practice by mapping them onto the concrete techniques clinicians routinely use. I've also just started data analysis on a clinical audit looking at the prevalence of autism within our Young Adult Programme.
What do you see as a priority for mental health research over the next five years?
In psychotherapy science, we've been very good at developing and evaluating different interventions, but less successful at establishing the core processes through which psychotherapy produces change. If we can understand these processes more clearly, we may be better placed to enhance psychotherapy as a whole. One promising approach is to ask what different therapies are trying to achieve in common. Previous research has highlighted the therapeutic relationship, but there are other common principles worth further exploration, such as enhancing motivation, increasing self-awareness and facilitating shifts in stuck patterns of thinking, feeling, behaving and relating. I also think we need to get better at studying psychotherapy as it is actually delivered. Clinicians work within evidence-based frameworks, but must also adapt to the individual or group in front of them; research needs to capture that responsiveness better.
Any tips for SPMHS staff wishing to engage in research projects?
Clinicians generate valuable research questions because they are grounded in the reality of daily practice. I would start by noticing and writing down the questions that naturally arise within your clinical work. Once you have a question, don't worry about complicated methodology. Instead ask what the simplest way of answering it might be; maybe a clinician survey, an analysis of routinely collected data, a small-scale qualitative study or a focused systematic review.Finally, don't feel like you need all the research skills yourself: collaboration is at the heart of good science!
Where can we find your work?
My published research can be found on my ResearchGate profile.
