Research Projects
Subclinical psychotic symptoms and environmental stressors in a territory-wide epidemiological youth cohort in Hong Kong: a neurocognitve, psychopathological, and digital phenotyping study


Programme(s) to which this project applies:
☑ MPhil/PhD ☑ MRes[Med] ☑ URIS

Objective and Significance:

- To identifiy youths in the population with higher risk of progressing to schziphrenia and other psychotic disorders
- To examine the adverse outcomes such as poor functioning, non-psychotic disorders and persistent attenuated psychotic symptoms among at-risk youths
- To examine the psychosocial and neurobiological mechanisms driving the onset of psychotic disorders

Research Plan and Methodology:

This is a longitudinal study, arising from our large-scale Hong Kong Youth Epidemiological Study of Mental Health (HKYES), comparing young people with and without subclinical psychotic symptoms on a series of evaluation assessments encompassing clinical, functional, psychological, psychosocial and standard neurocognitive domains. Other major psychiatric symptom dimensions including depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, substance use etc, will also be investigated. Investigational means such as innovative cognitive paradigms, experience sampling methods, digital phenotyping will be employed.

Professor EYH Chen, Chair Professor, Department of Psychiatry

Biography
HKU Scholars Hub
Laboratory Homepage
ORCID
eyhchen@hku.hk

For more information or to express interest for this project, please email the supervisor or the specified contact point in the project description.  Interested candidates are advised to enclose with your email:

  1. your CV,
  2. a brief description of your research interest and experience, and
  3. two reference letters (not required for HKUMed UG students seeking MRes[Med]/URIS projects).

Information on the research programme, funding support and admission documentations could be referenced online at the Research Postgraduate Admissions website. General admission enquiries should be directed to rpgmed@hku.hk.

HKUMed MBBS students interested in the Master of Research in Medicine (MRes[Med]) programme may visit the programme website for more information.  

HKUMed UG students interested in the Undergraduate Research Internship Scheme (URIS) may visit the scheme’s website for more information. 

Research @ Department of Psychiatry