Gregor Russell
Visiting Senior Lecturer

Profile

Biography

Dr Gregor Russell is a Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist with Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust (BDCFT). He completed an MD in 2014, investigating the relationship between complex visual hallucinations, dementia, and eye disease. Gregor is the R&D Director for BDCFT, overseeing the Trust’s research strategy, leading the delivery of CLEAR, the Trust’s biennial research conference, and supporting the Trust’s R&D Department in the successful delivery of NIHR portfolio studies across a wide range of subjects. He leads the Trust’s involvement with the innovative “City of Research” project, developing closer working relationships between NHS Trusts, Universities and the Local Authority in research delivery.

Gregor has also acted as medical lead for dementia for BDCFT, introducing service developments to improve the detection of Lewy body dementia in memory clinic, supporting the development of a specialist young onset dementia pathway, and leading collaborative work with the palliative care team to improve the quality of care on the Trust’s Dementia Assessment Unit.

Gregor has contributed to work that supported introducing access to Positron Emission Scanning in memory clinics in West Yorkshire, and to the development of NHS England good practice guide for Memory Assessment services. He also contributed to the development of the NHS England toolkit supporting deprescribing of antipsychotics in dementia. He acts as Specialty Research Lead for Dementia for the Yorkshire and Humber Clinical Research Network, and in this role has organised conferences to engage clinicians in research delivery across the region.

Qualifications

• Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
• MD University of Manchester
• MMedSc University of Leeds
• MB ChB University of Glasgow

Research

Overview

Gregor research interests cover applied health research, with a focus on investigating how to support and improve care for older people with cognitive problems. This has included work on improving the quality of inpatient care in dementia, on end of life care and dementia,  on brain health, and on developing core outcome sets for delirium. Other areas have included work on improving physical health outcomes in SMI, and on the relationship between visual hallucinations, cognitive impairment and eye disease.

Research group(s)

• Mental Health and Addiction

External activities

Memberships

• Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
• Faculty Member of Dementia Academy

Media coverage

• Twitter: @GregorRussell6

Publications

Full publications list

• Wolverson EL, Dening KH, Dunning R, Crowther G, Russell G, and Underwood BR. Family experiences of inpatient mental health care for people with dementia. Frontiers in Psychiatry 2023 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1093894 
• Dawes, P, Reeves, D, Yeung, WK, Holland F, Charalambous AP, Côté M,  David R,  Helmer C, Laforce R, Martins RN, Politis A,  Pye A, Russell G, Sheikh S, Sirois M, Sohrabi HR, Thodi C, Gallant K, Nasreddine Z, Leroi I. Development and validation of the Montreal cognitive assessment for people with hearing impairment (MoCA-H). Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2023; 1- 10 https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.18241
• Russell, G., Rana, N., Watts, R., Roshny, S., Siddiqi, N. and Rose, L., 2022. Reporting of outcomes and measures in studies of interventions to prevent and/or treat delirium in older adults resident in long-term care: a systematic review. Age and Ageing, 51(11)  https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac267
• Wolverson E, Dunning R, Crowther G, Russell G, Underwood BR. The Characteristics and Outcomes of People with Dementia in Inpatient Mental Health Care: A Review. Clinical Gerontology. 2022 Jul 27:1-20 https://doi.org/10.1080/07317115.2022.2104145
• Manca R, De Marco M, Colston A, Raymont V, Amin J, Davies R, Kumar P, Russell G, Blackburn DJ, and Venneri A. (2022) The impact of social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with dementia and caregivers. Acta Neuropsychiatrica 34:276–281 https://doi.org/10.1017/neu.2022.12
• Grycuk E, Chen Y, Almirall-Sanchez A, Higgins D, Galvin M, Kane J, Kinchin I, Lawlor B, Rogan C, Russell G, O'Sullivan R, Leroi I. Care burden, loneliness, and social isolation in caregivers of people with physical and brain health conditions in English-speaking regions: Before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2022 Jun;37(6):10.1002/gps.5734 https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5734
• Manca R, De Marco M, Colston A, Raymont V, Amin J, Davies R, Kumar P, Russell G, Blackburn DJ, Venneri A. The Impact of Social Isolation Due to COVID-19 on Symptom Progression in People With Dementia: Findings of the SOLITUDE Study. Front Psychiatry. 2022 May 10;13:877595 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.877595
• Featherstone I, Sheldon T, Johnson M, Woodhouse R, Boland JW, Hosie A, Lawlor P, Russell G, Bush S, Siddiqi N. Risk factors for delirium in adult patients receiving specialist palliative care: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Palliative Medicine. 2022;36(2):254-267 https://doi.org/10.1177/02692163211065278
• Femminella GD, Livingston NR, Raza S, …Russell G, et al. Does insulin resistance influence neurodegeneration in non-diabetic Alzheimer’s subjects?. Alzheimer's research & therapy. 2021 Dec;13(1):1-1
• Edmans BG, Wolverson E, Dunning R, Slann M, Russell G, Crowther G, Hall D, Yates R, Albert M, Underwood BR. Inpatient psychiatric care for patients with dementia at four sites in the United Kingdom (letter). Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2021 Dec 1;37(2) https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5658
• Dawes P, Leroi I, Chauhan N, Han W, Harbishettar V, Jayakody DMP, Jones L, Konstantinou A, Maharani A, Martini A, Politis A, Prabhakar S, Prew S, Prouskas C, Russell G, Sturrock A, Sunarti S, Taylor J, Vorvolakos T, Worthington M. Hearing and vision health for people with dementia in residential long term care: Knowledge, attitudes and practice in England, South Korea, India, Greece, Indonesia and Australia. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2021 Oct;36(10):1531-1540 https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5563
• Leroi I, Chauhan N, Hann M, Jones L, Prew S, Russell G, Sturrock RA, Taylor J, Worthington M, Dawes P. Sensory health for residents with dementia in care homes in England: A knowledge, attitudes, and practice survey. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2021 Jul 1;22(7):1518-24
• O'Brien J, Taylor JP, Ballard C, …Russell G, et al. Visual hallucinations in neurological and ophthalmological disease: pathophysiology and management. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 2020 May 1;91(5):512-9
• Femminella GD, Frangou E, Love SB, …Russell G, et al. (2019) Evaluating the effects of the novel GLP-1 analogue liraglutide in Alzheimer’s disease: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial (ELAD study). Trials, 20, ISSN 1745-6215
• Russell G, Harper R, Allen H, Baldwin R, Burns A. (2018) Cognitive impairment and Charles Bonnet syndrome: a prospective study. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 33, 39-46
• Motara H, Olusoga T, Russell G, et al. (2017) Clinical impact and diagnostic accuracy of 2-[18F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) brain imaging in patients with cognitive impairment: a tertiary centre experience in the UK. Clinical Radiology, 72, 63-73
• Russell G (2014) Cognition and morphological brain changes in Charles Bonnet syndrome. MD Thesis. The University of Manchester
• Russell G and Burns A (2014) Charles Bonnet syndrome and cognitive impairment: a systematic review. International Psychogeriatrics, 26, 1431-1443
• Russell G and Owens D (2010). Psychosocial assessment following self-harm: Repetition of nonfatal self-harm after assessment by psychiatrists or mental health nurses. Crisis, 31, 211-216

Teaching

Postgraduate

• PhD and DClinPsych supervision at University of Leeds
• Contribution to Module delivery on PGCert Dementia Studies and Mental Health Pharmacy pathway at University of Bradford
• Educational supervision of core trainees in psychiatry, GP trainees and Foundation doctors

Other teaching

• Seminars on Dementia and clinical teaching for undergraduate medical students at University of Leeds
• Development of Masterclasses on Alzheimer’s disease, aimed at experienced clinicians, for Dementia Academy
• Development of Masterclasses for Mental Health professionals and GPs in Bradford on Dementia and on Autoimmune Encephalitis
• Coordinated development and delivery of Bradford District Care Trust’s research conference “VirtuallyCLEAR22”
• Organisation of regular research teaching as part of Bradford District Care Trust’s Postgraduate medical education programme