Professor Bruce Russell 
BPharm(Hons) PhD  
Associate Dean, Clinical Pharmacy, University of Otago, NZ

Prof Russell’s research focuses on investigating the psychopharmacology and underlying pathophysiology of the severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia with an emphasis on treatment-resistance. His aim is to discover biomarkers that will enable the prediction of an individual's response to drug treatment. He also has an active interest in the psychopharmacology of both new and 'old' recreationally used drugs and the mechanisms underlying drug addiction. 

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Mental Health Clinical Research

The presentation will briefly discuss issues surrounding research about serious mental health disorders in New Zealand. It will then describe research and the results of two projects designed to investigate the mechanistic underpinnings and potential treatment of methamphetamine addiction and treatment-resistant schizophrenia respectively. Following this the talk will cover a project designed to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying ketamine effectiveness when used for treatment-resistant anxiety.