The Centre for Adolescent Health warmly welcomes Associate Professor Felice Jacka who will be spending time with us in an honorary capacity through the Murdoch Childrens Research institute.  Felice is a Principal Research Fellow at Deakin University, who also holds an honorary position at the Department of Psychiatry at The University of Melbourne and the Black Dog Institute. She is recognised as a leading expert regarding the association between diet quality and the common mental disorders, depression and anxiety. She is president of both the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research (ISNPR) and the new Australian Alliance for the Prevention of Mental Disorders (APMD).

Felice’s ongoing program of research focuses on health behaviours, particularly diet quality, as risk factors for mental disorders. It incorporates a broad range of epidemiological and public health investigations, with extensive partnerships and collaborations in Australia and elsewhere involving the acknowledged experts in the field of psychiatry, psychology, medicine and public health. Her program spans the spectrum of research, comprising detailed investigations of biological mechanisms and drivers of the relationships between lifestyle and mental health, such as the gut microbiota and immune system, through to the development of clinical and community based interventions. It aims to yield new knowledge that can be readily translated to inform public policy. Her primary goal is to develop a coherent public health message and effective, best-practice strategies for the universal primary prevention of the common mental disorders.

Felice’s engagement at the Centre builds on the collaborative relationship that she developed with Professor George Patton and the CATS study, from which she appreciated that there are wider opportunities for collaborative research. She says, “I am particularly drawn to the wealth of expertise available at MCRI in both the biological sciences and psychiatric epidemiology. Most importantly, with my prevention hat on, I am increasingly interested in early life exposures as important modifiable targets for preventing mental disorders across the life course”. How is Felice finding it? “It has exceeded my expectations. The environment is cheerful, friendly and collaborative and there are so many talented researchers with whom I can share my interests!” Felice is interested in the wider social and economic aspects of population mental health. “I believe that working at the Centre for Adolescent Health will enable me to develop key research projects that relate to each of these areas”.