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Dr Juruena is Clinical Reader in Translational Psychiatry at the Centre for Affective Disorders and Consultant Psychiatrist at the National Affective Disorders Service (led by Professor Allan Young), Dr Mario Juruena is the lead consultant of the Maudsley Advance Treatment Service (MATS) and Maudsley Hospital ECT Service.

Area of expertise

Currently, Dr Juruena is the Lead Consultant Psychiatrist of the Maudsley Advanced Treatment Service (MATS) providing specialist assessment and advanced treatment for difficult to treat affective disorders, including treatment-resistant depression and treatment-resistant bipolar disorder. The MATS include evaluation, treatment recommendation and advanced treatments, such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), vagus nerve stimulation therapy (VNS), ketamine, esketamine complex and/or novel pharmacotherapy.

Dr Mario Juruena has been developing continuous education across community teams. Ongoing research for new treatments and guidance that can support Trust patients and clinicians in the management of affective disorders.

The primary focus of Dr Juruena research is diagnostic, psychopharmacology, psychoneuroendocrinology and clinical trials in affective disorders looking to understand the aetiology, neurobiology and long-term outcome of treatment-resistant depression (TRD), resistant bipolar (TRB) and relation to comorbidities. Running this programme, he has been studying the connections between stress, mainly early life stress by neuroendocrine axis and with a particular history of childhood trauma and cognition and clinical trials in psychopharmacotherapy.

Dr Juruena provide specialist assessment and advanced treatment for affective disorders, including Depression, Bipolar, Anxiety Disorders, PTSD, Difficult to Treat Depression and Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Disorder. He is an expert in reviewing diagnosis and treatment. In addition, he does recommendations and advanced treatments, such as complex/ novel pharmacotherapy and neuromodulation. He has experience in CBT and combined treatment for mood and anxiety disorders. Over the past years, He has gained extensive and broad experience in all aspects of the speciality.

His group has been interested in developing biomarkers, particularly neuroendocrine biomarkers. For the first time, Dr Juruena and his team analysed the extent to which mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) contribute to HPA axis suppression in treatment-resistant depressed (TRD) patients. In 2016, he had returned to the UK after obtaining a prestigious Fellowship from both the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences, developing the project HPA axis assessment in bipolar depression (BD) with early life stress (ELS), in this study, was assessed the relationship of two different stress hormones cortisol and aldosterone, in patients with bipolar depression with or without a history of early life stress. Dr Juruena et al. have demonstrated for the first time that MR polymorphisms influence aldosterone and cortisol levels, indicating the crucial role of MR receptor function within the BD more susceptible to aldosterone changes when exposed to ELS.

Background

Dr Juruena is Clinical Reader in Translational Psychiatry and Consultant Psychiatrist at the Trust, currently the lead consultant for the Maudsley Advanced Treatment Service (MATS) for Recurrent and Treatment-Resistant Depression and Bipolar and the Maudsley Hospital ECT Service at the Trust. Several years of experience in conducting outpatient and outreach clinics have refined his consultation skills to ensure patient satisfaction while recognising the importance of running his clinics to time.

The British Association awarded him for Psychopharmacology ‘The Senior Clinical Psychopharmacology Award’. Also, He received the Robert W. Kerwin Psychopharmacology Prize from the Royal College of Psychiatrists for the best article published on the subject in the British Journal of Psychiatry. More recently, he was awarded the Newton Fellow from Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences.

Education, Training and Qualifications

Dr Juruena graduated in Medicine from Pontifical Catholic University, Southern Brazil. He completed his Psychiatry Training at the Porto Alegre Mental Health School and received his MPhil at the Federal University of Sao Paulo and then MSc Affective Neuroscience, at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Dr Juruena received his PhD in Psychiatry at the University of London/King’s College London. Mario has also completed Specialisation in Cognitive Psychotherapy at Beck Institute, Philadelphia, USA.

· Clinical Fellow Royal Society/Academy of Medical Sciences, King’s College London, Psychiatry, 2016

· Postdoctoral Clinical Fellow Department of Neurosciences and Behaviour - University of Sao Paulo, Psychiatry, 2009

· Full Specialist Registration General Medical Council (GMC), UK General Adult Psychiatry, 2008

· PhD University of London - King’s College London, Psychiatry, 2007

· MSc in Affective Neuroscience Universiteit Maastricht in the Netherlands, Affective Neuroscience, 2004

· CCST in Psychiatry The Specialist Training Authority of the Medical Royal Colleges, UK General Adult Psychiatry, 2003

· Specialist in CBT Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research - Philadelphia, USA, CBT, 1999

· MPhil in Psychobiology Department of Psychobiology, Federal University of Sao Paulo, Psychopharmacology, 1995

· SpR (ST in Psychiatry) Department of Psychiatry - Federal University of Sao Paulo/Saint Paul Hospital, General Adult Psychiatry, 1994

· SHO (CT in Psychiatry) Saint Peter Psychiatric State Hospital - Porto Alegre, Psychiatry and Mental Health, 1991

· SHO (CT in GP) School of Public Health, Murialdo School Health, Brazil, General Practitioner in Medicine, 1989

· MD Pontifical Catholic University - Porto Alegre, Faculty of Medicine, Medicine, 1987

Teaching Roles

· Clinical Reader in Translational Psychiatry, Dept of Psychological Medicine, IoPPN, King’s College London

· Co-Module lead for Research Projects in the MSc in Affective Disorders at King’s College London

· The Maudsley MRCPsych lecturer

· Adjunct Associate Professor, Dept of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Science Center in Houston

· Honorary Professor, Dept of Psychiatry, Federal University of Sao Paulo

Membership of Professional bodies

· Royal College of Psychiatrists - UK

· GMC Specialist Register Specialty: General Adult Psychiatry

· London Region Section 12/AC Panel S12/AC approval

· CCST by Specialist Training Authority - Medical Royal Colleges

· British Association for Psychopharmacology

· British Medical Association

Publications (selected)

Dr Juruena has published over 150 original research articles, reviews and book chapters, and edited five books. Most of his are related to the neurobiology, diagnostic, pathophysiology, and therapeutics of Mood Disorders (Depression and Bipolar) - including TRD, Treatment-Resistant Bipolar, Psychopharmacology (antidepressants, mood stabilizers, atypical antipsychotics, new drugs, clinical trials) Neuromodulation, Psychoneuroendocrinology (HPA axis, Stress) Early Life Stress and their approach to Mental Health. Dr Juruena has approximately 600 abstracts published in more than 900 meetings presentations. h-Index=38, > 6900 citations, >4200 citations from 2017-Sep 2022.

For a full updated list please see the link https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/mario.juruena.html