Riccardo De Giorgi
MD, DPhil, MRCPsych
Clinical Lecturer
- Clinical Lecturer ST4-6 in General Adult Psychiatry
Repurposing drugs in mood disorders
I am a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Oxford, Department of Psychiatry, and ST4-6 at Health Education England-Thames Valley, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. I am the academic representative for the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees programme in Oxford and the Oxford Clinical-Academic Journal Club. I am a tutor in psychiatry and regularly teach medical students and trainees about the topics of research methodology and critical appraisal, psychopharmacology, and mood disorders.
I am interested in the neuropsychopharmacology and evidence-based treatment of mental illness, especially mood disorders. I am fascinated by the problem of "treatment resistance", i.e., when patients do not appear to respond to several lines of therapy. There is increasing evidence that immunological and metabolic factors play a role in the pathophysiology of depression, especially in patients who are treatment-resistant. Repurposing commonly used medical treatments (e.g., anti-inflammatory medications) may therefore benefit those patients who respond poorly to conventional antidepressants and who might be identifiable a priori through measurement of inflammatory and metabolic markers.
Currently, I am working on experimental medicine studies for the repurposing of drugs with immuno-metabolic activity (e.g., statins, GLP1-RAs) in mood disorders. I look at early markers of antidepressant response, such as changes in emotional processing, reward, and immuno-metabolic peripheral markers to validate the use of these drugs in further clinical trials.
Recent publications
-
Journal article
Waters S. et al, (2023), BJPsych Open, 9
-
Journal article
Chapman N. et al, (2022), J Glob Health, 12
-
Journal article
De Giorgi R. et al, (2022), Psychopharmacology (Berl)
-
Journal article
De Giorgi R., (2022), BMJ, o74 - o74
-
Journal article
De Giorgi R. et al, (2021), Journal of Affective Disorders, 295, 1093 - 1094