At the conference, awardees of the Audrey Jones Memorial Award gave presentations on their work. The Audrey Jones Award is granted for outstanding research affecting women and girls in Wales.
Our researcher Lisa Shitomi-Jones won the Audrey Jones Memorial Award for her work on perimenopause and psychiatric risk, and our PhD student Chloe Apsey was highly commended for her research on premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
Dr Jessica Yang has also previously won the Audrey Jones Award in 2024.
Our research paper on first onsets of severe mental health conditions during the perimenopause provided key scientific evidence in the statement.
Read more at the blog post on National Centre for Mental Health’s website.
This award celebrated her dedication to public engagement and centering women with lived experience in her work as well as her contributions to the Division and School. Her contribution to public engagement has been far-reaching, addressing underserved communities. At the national level, she is working side by side with Action on Postpartum Psychosis on research projects aimed to improve the life of women with lived experience. Her commitment to public engagement and communication skills are internationally recognized. She is the engagement officer of the Bipolar Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and has run specific research on the involvement of women with severe mental illness in low and middle-income countries. She has taken part in several webinars for a variety of audiences, including the Women’s Winter Webinar series, addressed lay audiences at numerous conferences, lead several social media campaigns and represented the group at events such as the Every Woman Festival.
]]>She accepted the award at the annual Wales Assembly of Women conference, where she presented on her PhD research on bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis in women.
]]>Many people think of menopause as a single event that happens around a woman’s early 50s, the average age for her last period. But it’s a gradual process that typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 55.
Perimenopause is the phase leading up to and following menopause, during which hormonal changes affect the menstrual cycle. This stage differs from person to person and can last several years. Symptoms may include hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings and irregular periods.
While physical symptoms are common, the potential effect of perimenopause on mental health – including mood changes and severe psychiatric disorders – is less understood and has been under-researched.
We were inspired to conduct our research by the patients at Professor Di Florio’s mental health clinic. It offers a free clinical service providing second opinions for people experiencing severe psychiatric disorders associated with reproductive events.
Many of the women in the clinic had never experienced severe mental health problems before menopause. But something seemed to shift during perimenopause. Suddenly many found themselves grappling with these conditions. However, upon reviewing the research, it appeared that the experiences of these women were not documented or explored in scientific literature.
To address this research gap and find answers, we conducted research using a large database called UK Biobank. This is a resource which gives approved researchers secure access to anonymous medical and genetic data from half a million volunteers. It aims to improve our understanding of how to prevent, diagnose and treat many serious conditions.
Using the data, we investigated how many participants had new onsets of psychiatric conditions during the perimenopause. We then compared this to the number of new onsets during the late reproductive stage, which are the years before the perimenopause.
The data we examined came from 128,294 women in the UK. We wanted to explore how the years around the final menstrual period may trigger serious mental health issues, including bipolar and major depressive disorders. We discovered a 112% increase in new cases of bipolar disorder. We also found a 30% rise in major depressive conditions during this time, compared to earlier stages of the late reproductive period.
Our study was the first of its kind to investigate first onsets of bipolar disorder during the perimenopause. It validates the experiences of women who were previously essentially invisible in the world of research.
Although some hypotheses exist as to why perimenopause and hormones may play a role in psychiatric disorders, much more research is required to better understand why this affects some people but not others. Researchers also need to uncover the best treatment options for these women.
We hope that our research paves the way for more research on women’s mental health at perimenopause, as well as further investigations into the underlying biological mechanisms.
]]>This webinar series discussed how reproductive events such as pregnancy, the menstrual cycle and reproductive ageing impact the mental health of women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB). Each session of the series detailed what we know about mental health research in these areas already and what research the team has been working on recently. The PMDD webinar also saw the launch of the new PMDD animation which was developed in collaboration with people with lived experience of PMDD.
Read more about menopause webinar at the blog post on National Centre for Mental Health’s website, the postpartum psychosis webinar here and the PMDD webinar here.
The Consortium, which spans six countries and four continents, ran discussion groups with people in India, Malawi and the UK to understand more about the characteristics of postpartum psychosis and the labels which are used to describe an episode in these three different cultural contexts. They talked to women with lived experience of postpartum psychosis, their families and healthcare professionals to find out what should be the priorities of research going forward.
Read more at the blog post on National Centre for Mental Health’s website.