NCMD clinicians involved in developing links in the Middle East

Professors McAllister-Williams and Ferrier, together with colleagues from the British Association for Psychopharmacology (BAP), were recently involved in running and speaking at a Masterclass in Psychopharmacology for psychiatrists across the Gulf held in Dubai on 26th and 27th January 2018.

The conference was organised by the American Center for Psychiatry and Neurology (ACPN) which is based in Abu Dhabi. The Head of Psychiatry at ACPN is Dr Samer Makhoul who completed his training in the North East of England, including working in the Regional Affective Disorders Service (RADS) with Professor Ferrier. Dr Makhoul and Prof McAllister-Williams jointly put together the programme for the Masterclass in Dubai with the hope that this will be the first of an annual programme. The meeting was a great success with around 100 delegates attending the two days of lectures given by stalwarts of BAP teaching including Professor Peter Haddad and Dr Peter Talbot from Manchester, Dr James Kustow and Dr Fiona Gaughran from London, and Professor Eilish Gilvarry from Newcastle.

Aside from working together on this, and potentially future, Masterclasses for clinicians in the Gulf, the conference provided an opportunity for discussions around how NCMD may be able to collaborate with ACPN on various research projects and how RADS may be able to provide some clinical input to ACPN. Hopefully these are initiatives that will develop over the next few months/years building a strong collaborative relationship between the North East of England and the United Arab Emirates.