Dr Colin O'Donnell

Dr Colin O’Donnell is a Senior Research Fellow at Orygen Youth Health Research Centre and leads the Early Psychosis Treatment Development team.
His research experience includes 3 years while training on the St John of God’s Hospital Psychiatric Training Scheme, Dublin, co-coordinating a double blind randomised controlled trial on Compliance Therapy published in 2003.  He worked as a consultant psychiatrist in substance misuse at the National Drug Treatment Centre in Dublin for 6 months prior to taking up clinical and research duties at Orygen Youth Health Research Centre in 2003, working with the Youth Access Team and EPPIC.

Dr Colin O’Donnell has been awarded grants from Stanley Medical Research Institute, Washington, Jack Brockhoff Foundation, National Health and Medical Research Council Equipment grant and investigator initiated grants from Eli Lilly, Janssen & Astra Zeneca.
Current work includes evaluating  the safety and efficacy of novel mechanism pharmacological agents that target domains of psychopathology, such as cognitive impairment and negative symptoms, inadequately addressed by current therapies or prevention strategies. Dr O’Donnell’s clinical research examines how well a new treatment works—such as lowering homocysteine using folic acid or Taurine supplementation.

The factors that affect early psychosis are also explored. These include the role of genes and their interactions with life experiences in ways that might alter the chemistry of the brain and lead to illness.