Philip Mosley
Dr | Clinical Research Fellow
+61 7 3845 3007Philip.mosley@qimrberghofer.edu.au
OVERVIEW
Dr Philip Mosley studied at the University of Oxford and obtained a masters degree in physiological sciences and a degree in medicine. He was also captain of the university boxing team and was awarded two full ‘Blues’. He worked as a junior doctor in Manchester before moving to Australia to complete his specialist training in psychiatry.
Dr Mosley is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry (RANZCP) and has completed an advanced certificate in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. As part of his training he also undertook a 2-year neuropsychiatry fellowship at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) and the Asia-Pacific Centre for Neuromodulation (APCN) at the University of Queensland. Currently, Dr Mosley works as a member of the deep brain stimulation (DBS) team at St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital, Brisbane, runs a private neuropsychiatry practice and also provides a consultation-liaison psychiatry service to the neurology, medical and surgical wards. Dr Mosley’s private practice is focussed on neurodegenerative disease, movement disorders and head injury.
Dr Mosley is an active clinician-scientist with appointments at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Queensland Brain Institute and CSIRO. He completed his PhD in neuroscience in 2019 under the supervision of Professor Michael Breakspear. He published eleven peer-reviewed manuscripts and received the UQ Dean’s Award for outstanding thesis. Dr Mosley has been the chief investigator in a study of the neuropsychiatric effects of DBS for Parkinson’s disease, in a study of medicinal cannabis for Tourette’s syndrome, a lead investigator in a clinical trial of DBS for obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia nervosa, as well as a clinical fellow in a neuroimaging study of Alzheimer’s disease. He has won prizes from the RANZCP in Old Age Psychiatry and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, and he has received research funding from the RBWH Foundation, the RANZCP Young Investigator Grant, Parkinson’s Queensland and Wesley Medical Research. Dr Mosley was awarded an ‘Advance Queensland’ Early Career Fellowship for his Parkinson’s disease research and won the postgraduate medal from the Australian Society for Medical Research for findings arising from this project. In 2020, he won the Early Career Psychiatrist award from the RANZCP, which is presented to the fellow producing the most significant piece of research in the five years since fellowship. Currently, Dr Mosley’s research is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Medical Research Future Fund.
If you wish to contact Dr Mosley regarding a clinical matter, please do so via his neuropsychiatry clinic (Neurosciences Queensland) telephone: 07 3839 3688 or email: admin@nsqld.com.au.
RESEARCH IMPACTS
Dr Mosley is one of the most experienced psychiatrists in the world with regards to the practice of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and has been embedded as a psychiatrist in the DBS service in Brisbane since 2013. This centre is the largest in Australia and one of the largest worldwide (1200 devices implanted). Dr Mosley has improved the neuropsychiatric safety of DBS for Parkinson’s disease through individualised assessments of brain connectivity and stimulation field distribution. His rich dataset has been shared with European and US collaborators. During his PhD in neuroscience, Dr Mosley demarcated brain networks responsible for changes in mood after DBS and used mathematical modelling of human behaviour to discriminate those at risk of postoperative psychiatric complications. His work translates clinically to more accurate and effective use of neuromodulation, based on targeted recruitment of key neuronal pathways. Applying these methods to treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder, Dr Mosley characterised a brain connectivity fingerprint associated with clinically-significant response to DBS. This was a landmark Australian trial (Reg. U1111-1146-0992), establishing DBS as a viable treatment option for those with intractable symptoms. Positive outcomes from this sham-controlled trial have led to the first Australian trial of DBS for severe and enduring anorexia nervosa (Reg. U1111-1219-9348). Dr Mosley completed the first placebo-controlled, double blind, study demonstrating the benefits of repeated dosing with THC plus CBD (medicinal cannabis) for the suppression of tics in Tourette’s syndrome.
COMPLETED PROJECTS
- Defining brain networks mediating psychiatric symptoms after subthalamic deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease.
- Predictors of caregiver burden after subthalamic deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease.
- Psychological interventions for caregivers after subthalamic deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease.
- Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens for severe, treatment-resistant, obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial of medicinal cannabis for Tourette’s syndrome.
- Neuroimaging biomarkers of early Alzheimer’s disease.
- Brain signatures of melancholic depression.
CURRENT PROJECTS
- Deep brain stimulation of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis for severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (recruiting).
- Transcranial focussed ultrasound for severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (recruiting).
CURRENT APPOINTMENTS
- Clinical Research Fellow – QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS
- Honorary Senior Fellow – University of Queensland Faculty of Medicine
- Honorary Senior Fellow – Queensland Brain Institute
ORCID NUMBER
AWARDS RECOGNITION
2020: Dean’s Commendation; Outstanding PhD Thesis
2020: RANZCP Early Career Psychiatrist Prize
2019: Parkinson’s Queensland Higher Research Degree Travel Award
2018: Postgraduate medal; Australian Society for Medical Research
2018: Best paper; American Society for Stereotactic & Functional Neurosurgery
2017: Best clinical paper; Translational Research Institute Symposium
2014: RANZCP Faculty of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Psychiatric Trainee Prize
2013: RANZCP Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age Basic Psychiatric Trainee Prize
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
2019: PhD Neuroscience, QIMR Berghofer Research Institute
2015: FRANZCP Psychiatry, Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
2007: BMBCh Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
2004: MA (2:1) Physiological Sciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom