Dr Thomas Pollak

Dr Thomas Pollak MBBS, MRCPsych, MSc

I am a NIHR Clinical Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London and a specialty trainee general adult psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. My specialist clinical interest is in neuropsychiatry.

I have set up and co-run a joint multidisciplinary clinic dedicated to the assessment and management of patients with confirmed or suspected autoimmune encephalitis and other central nervous system autoimmune disorders, at King’s College Hospital, London. All patients at this clinic are seen jointly by a neurologist and a psychiatrist, an approach I believe is essential to ensuring the best possible patient care. At King’s Health Partners we are embarking on a programme of neuropsychiatrically-oriented research into autoimmune encephalitis, with the aim of improving clinical recognition and outcomes for patients. I am particularly interested in characterising the longer-term psychiatric wellbeing of people with encephalitis.

I have trained in psychology (BA; Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford), medicine (MBBS; King’s College London), clinical psychiatry (MRCPsych; Royal College of Psychiatrists) and clinical neurology (MSc; University College London). In 2015 I was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellowship to look at the neuroimmunological basis of psychiatric disease, with a particular focus on the autoantibodies known to cause autoimmune encephalitis.

In my current work I am using neuroimaging and neuroimmunological methods to characterise the significance of autoantibodies to neuronal surface antigens in early psychosis. My other research interests include the role of infections in psychiatry, glutamatergic abnormalities in psychosis and organic presentations in clinical neuropsychiatry.