Katie is a Research Associate within the Mood Disorders Research Group and is based in Cardiff University.
Katie graduated in 2010 with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Bath. Following graduation, Katie worked as a Research Assistant at Cardiff University. During this time, Katie helped conduct research on the causes of adolescent depression, which sparked her interest in mental health research.
In 2017, Katie completed her PhD in Psychological Medicine at Cardiff University. Katie’s PhD research explored how disruptions to sleep might impact people with bipolar disorder. Specifically, she found (1) women and people with bipolar I subtype are more likely to self-report that sleep loss has triggered episodes of high mood, (2) women with a history of postpartum psychosis are more likely to report that sleep loss has triggered high mood than women who remained well after childbirth, (3) in people who used True Colours to prospectively measure mood, there are some groups who experience poor sleep prior to episodes of high mood and others whose sleep remains unaffected. Since completing her PhD, Katie’s work has focused on the genetics of sleep. Her latest research has found that genetic risk for insomnia and sleep duration differs between bipolar subtypes.
Katie has a keen interest in public engagement. In addition to speaking at public engagement events such as Wales Gene Park, she has written a blog on sleep and mental health for the National Centre for Mental Health and has delivered a number of workshops on the importance of sleep for mental health. She has co-authored a leaflet on managing sleep problems, which can be found here.