Staff Profile

I studied Medicine at University of Birmingham with an intercalated BMedSc in Clinical Sciences.

After graduation, I was accepted onto the Academic Foundation Programme at University of Oxford and spent my foundation years at John Radcliffe and Horton General Hospitals.

I then worked as a clinical research fellow in the Psychiatric Imaging Group at Imperial College London.

After this, I gained a post as an Academic Clinical Fellow in Old Age Psychiatry in Newcastle and am currently training in psychiatry while working in Lewy Body Lab under supervision of Prof John-Paul Taylor.

I am interested in the biological basis of neuropsychiatric diseases. My research interest is centred on the clinical, digital and imaging-based phenotyping of common dementia syndromes, with particular emphasis on neuropsychiatric symptomatology. I am interested in the development and application of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in dementia and other neuropsychiatric conditions.

• Articles

  • Osugo M, Whitehurst T, Shatalina E, Townsend L, O'Brien O, Mak T, McCutcheon R, Howes O. Dopamine partial agonists and prodopaminergic drugs for schizophrenia: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews 2022, 135, 104568.
  • Townsend L, Pillinger T, Selvaggi P, Veronese M, Turkheimer F, Howes O. Brain glucose metabolism in schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of ¹⁸FDG-PET studies in schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine 2023, 53(11), 4880-4897.
  • Howes O, Whitehurst T, Shatalina E, Townsend L, Onwordi E, Mak T, Arumuham A, OBrien O, Lobo M, Vano L, Zahid U, Butler E, Osugo M. The clinical significance of duration of untreated psychosis: an umbrella review and random‐effects meta‐analysis. World Psychiatry 2021, 20(1), 75-95.
  • Al-Diwani A, Handel A, Townsend L, Pollak T, Leite I, Harrison P, Lennox B, Okai D, Irani S. The psychopathology of NMDAR-antibody encephalitis in adults: a systematic review and phenotypic analysis of individual patient data. Lancet Psychiatry 2019, 6(3), 235-246.

• Review

  • Townsend LTJ, Anderson KN, Boeve BF, McKeith I, Taylor J-P. Sleep disorders in Lewy body dementia: Mechanisms, clinical relevance, and unanswered questions. Alzheimer's and Dementia 2023, 19(11), 5264-5283.