Research

St Patrick's Hospital, in conjunction with the Academic Psychiatric Unit of TCD at St James's Hospital (the Jonathan Swift Psychiatric Unit) has developed a vigorous and broad-based programme of clinical research over the past thirty years. The Depression Research Unit has built up an impressive research base clarifying the biological factors suspected of operating in mood disorders, evaluating the expanding array of new drug therapies and improving professional and public understanding. Research workers at St Patrick's and St James's are collaborating in an international research study seeking the gene or genes playing a causal role in bipolar affective disorder (manic depressive illness).

Staff from the Alcohol/Chemical Dependence programme are working with other researchers in Ireland and the United States on a study aimed at identifying the genes suspected of playing a role in the susceptibility to alcohol dependence.

Research involving Academic Department staff and clinical staff at St Patrick's and St James's Hospitals and directed at improving diagnostic sensitivity and therapeutic effectiveness in Alzheimer's disease and other forms of cognitive impairment in the elderly, is extensive and growing.

Other research initiatives include the assessment of new drug therapies in depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety and panic states, the psychological consequences in adults of childhood sexual abuse, post stroke depressions in the elderly and studies aimed at enhancing support for those families and friends struggling to care for patients with dementia in the community.

Research at the hospital has attracted grants from the Wellcome Trust, the Health Research Board, the voluntary organisation Aware, the pharmaceutical industry and the Association of Friends of St Patrick's. The Medical Director of St Patricks Hospital is clinical professor of psychiatry at University of Dublin, Trinity College.

The Library at St Patrick's Hospital offers an extensive collection of medical and nursing literature including texts, journals, audiovisual material, abstracts and indexes and internet facilities. There is an excellently equipped teaching centre and modern conference facilities for meeting of up to 250 people.