Prof Nicholas Allen

Nick Allen is a Clinical Psychologist and a Professor at Orygen Youth Health Research Centre and Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He previously worked as a research scientist at the Oregon Research Institute in the USA, where he worked on the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project, which is the largest study of the causes and consequences of adolescent depression in the USA. His current research interests include psychological, family, and biological risk factors for adolescent onset depression, affective and social neuroscience and their application to affective disorders, and cognitive behavioural approaches to treatment, prevention, and early intervention for affective disorders. He leads a large team of investigators in the Orygen Adolescent Development Study, which is a multi-method prospective study of the causes of mental health problems during adolescence.
 
Nick holds research funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council, beyondblue (the Australian national depression initiative) and the National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.A.), for research psychological and biological aspects of vulnerability to depression during adolescence, and the treatment and prevention of depression using cognitive behavioural and meditation-based techniques.