Perminder Sachdev

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Perminder Sachdev

AM, FAHMS
Born1956 (age 66–67)
Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Education All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales
Scientific career
Fields Neuropsychiatry
Institutions University of New South Wales

Perminder Sachdev AM FAHMS (born 1956, Ludhiana, India) is an Indian neuropsychiatrist based in Australia. He is a professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), co-director of the UNSW Centre for Healthy Brain Aging, and clinical director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney. He is considered a trailblazer in the field of neuropsychiatry. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Sachdev's research interests include ageing, vascular cognitive disorders such as vascular dementia, and psychiatric disorders. [6] [7]

Contents

Early life and education

Sachdev was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, India and went to school in Solan in the foothills of the Himalayas. [8] He attended All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, earning his MBBS in 1978 and his MD in psychiatry in 1981. The title of his thesis was "A reperatory grid comparison of endogeneous and neurotic depressions." [3] He received his PhD in psychiatry from University of New South Wales in 1991 after successfully defending his dissertation, "Studies in Māori ethnopsychiatry," which looked at the Māori traditions of mana, tapu, noa, and whakamā. [3] [9] He chose to study psychiatry instead of neurology because it "offered the scope for examining 'the human condition'." [10]

Career

Sachdev has been the clinical director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney since 1987. Research there focuses on movement disorders such as drug-induced akathisia, Tourette Syndrome, tardive dystonia, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. [3] [10] [5] He became a professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1999. [5] Sachdev's research interests center on cognitive and psychiatric disorders; examples include late-onset schizophrenia, dementia, and Alzheimer's. [6] [3] [11] He has done research on how mirror neurons impact psychiatric disorders, and has examined the efficacy of brain stimulation techniques such as TMS, DCS, VNS, and DBS as treatments for psychiatric disorders. [3] [12]

In 2006, he became the founding chair of the neuropsychiatry section at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, a position he held for one year. [5] [3] In 2012, he established the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing at UNSW, which focuses on neurocognitive disorders and brain health, specifically regarding vascular dementia. [2] [3] This team includes researchers from eight universities and three research institutions. [4] He has been the PI on a number of longitudinal, community-based studies of brain ageing, including the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study, the Older Australian Twins Study, and the Sydney Centenarian Study (1997-2005). [13] [3] [14] [15] The Sydney Centenarian Study "emphasised the important role of the brain's frontoparietal network in relation to the adaptability of a person's cognitive abilities to ageing and disease, known as cognitive reserve." [14] He is a collaborator of the Australian PATH Through Life Study, leading the normative brain ageing study since its start. [16] He also leads three international networks: the International Centenarian Consortium - Dementia (ICC-Dementia), which began in 2012; the Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium (COSMIC), which began in 2017; and the Stroke and Cognititon Consortium (STROKOG), which began expanding in 2022. [3] [17] [18] [19]

His involvement in so many research collectives has allowed him to take a leading role in the development and improvement of training within neuropsychiatry, including the core curriculum. [5] [2] [3] [9] He was one of two Australians who contributed to the diagnosis of dementia for the DSM-5 and led an international team to develop the diagnosis for dementia for the International Society of Vascular Behavioural and Cognitive Disorders. [20] [2] Sachdev has identified new genetic markers of VCD and Alzheimer's, and has identified homocysteine and impaired fasting glucose as risk factors for brain atrophy. [20] [2] He has also contributed to the field of epilepsy research as a member of the Task Force of the International League Against Epilepsy's Neuropsychobiology Commission. [5] He was invited by the World Health Organization to lead a research blueprint to "help make dementia research an international priority" and, in 2022, the Australian National Health and Medicine Research Council provided him with funding to establish a research center focused solely on vascular contributions to dementia. [2] According to former UNSW Vice-Chancellor Ian Jacobs, who nominated Sachdev for the Ryman Award, he has also "championed the inclusion of diversity in dementia research." [2]

Additionally, he was a medical advisor and founding executive committee member of the Tourette Syndrome Association starting in 1989; was on the Scientific Steering Committee of the Garvan Institute's Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (1996-1998); sat on the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists' Committee on Psychotropic Drugs and Other Physical Treatments (1996-1998); was a founding member (1998), president (2004-2006), executive member (2011), assistant secretary, and treasurer of the International Neuropsychiatric Association; [5] [8] [21] [3] [2] and served as vice-president of the Indo-Australasian Psychiatry Association (2005-2006). [5]

He was also a founding member and past president of the International College of Geriatric Psychopharmacology and formerly chief medical advisor to Alzheimer's Australia. [5] [2] [3] He served as an international advisor to the American Neurosurgical Society's Psychosurgery Review Committee, was an advisory member of the F1000 reports board, and has sat on the editorial board of a number of journals, including the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry , Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment , Acta Neuropsychiatrica , and Current Opinion in Psychiatry . [8] Additionally, he is a member of the Australian Society of Psychiatric Research, Australian Society of Biological Psychiatry, Alzheimer's Association, Australian Brain Foundation, the task force of the International League Against Epilepsy's Neuropsychobiology Commission, and American Psychiatric Association's Neurocognitive Disorders Work Group. [5] [3]

Honours and awards

Personal life

Sachdev is married to psychiatrist Dr. Jagdeep Sachdev. [24] [25]

Selected publications

As of 2022, Sachdev had more than 1,100 peer reviewed journal articles, seven books (including The Yipping Tiger ), three edited books, and 71 book chapters to his name. He has published in journals including Nature , Science , Molecular Psychiatry , Lancet Neurology , and the British Medical Journal . In 2017, he published a book of poems called A migrant's musings and other offerings to an adopted land. [2] [3] [10] [26]

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ "'Lift ban' on deep brain therapy". The Australian. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Douglass, Heidi (8 December 2022). "Perminder Sachdev awarded the 2022 Ryman Prize". University of New South Wales. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 "Scientia Professor Perminder Sachdev". University of New South Wales. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Funding success for Centres of Research Excellence". University of New South Wales. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "MEMBER (AM) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA" (PDF). The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. 2011. p. 68. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2011.
  6. 1 2 3 "Semi-Supercentenarian: 106-year-old believed to be first Kiwi to receive birthday card from two monarchs". NZ Herald. 23 December 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  7. ↑ "World renowned neuropsychiatrist on longevity and staving off dementia". RNZ. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Perminder Singh Sachdev". Crown Content Pty td. Who's Who in Australia. 2010. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 "Perminder Singh Sachdev". Who's Who in the World (24 ed.). Marquis Who's Who. 2007.
  10. 1 2 3 Hussein, Shakira (20 May 2010). "Brains, Minds, Hearts And Souls". New Matilda. Archived from the original on 23 August 2011.
  11. ↑ Sachdev, Perminder (March 1998). "Schizophrenia-like psychosis and epilepsy: the status of the association". American Journal of Psychiatry. 155 (3): 325–336. doi:10.1176/ajp.155.3.325.
  12. ↑ "Mirror neuron systems offer exciting prospects". The Hindu. 7 September 2009. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  13. ↑ Richards, Sarah Elizabeth (1 October 2018). "'Twins are nature's experiment': How scientists use them to study nature vs. nurture". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  14. 1 2 "Near Centenarians Show Greater Brain Connectivity Than People in Their Mid-70s". Technology Networks. 11 May 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  15. ↑ "Sydney Stroke Study (SSS)". CHeBA. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  16. ↑ "PATH Through Life Study". CHeBA. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  17. ↑ "COSMIC: Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium". CHeBA. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  18. ↑ "STROKOG". CHeBA. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  19. ↑ "International Centenarian Consortium - dementia". Synchros. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  20. 1 2 3 Gough, Myles (7 October 2015). "Medical research leaders elected to Academy". University of New South Wales. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  21. 1 2 Hebertson, L.; Rice, M. (15 June 2011). "Our Local Heroes Queen's Birthday Honours 2011". Wentworth Courier. p. 6.
  22. ↑ 'At University of NSW – NSW Scientist of the Year Awards', Southern Courier, 12 October 2010, 29.
  23. ↑ "Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences" (PDF). Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. June 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  24. ↑ King, David (8 December 2022). "WORLD-LEADING NEUROPSYCHIATRIST WINS THE RYMAN PRIZE". Ryman Healthcare. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  25. ↑ Dlamini, Nombuso. "Dementia the Subject of Public Debate at UKZN". University of Kwazulu-Natal. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  26. ↑ Turney, Drew (1 April 2010). "Think again: reinterpreting the brain". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
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