Medical sociology and health related research is a well-established specialization of the Department.
Professor George Brown is a member of the MRC's external
Scientific Staff and leads a research team investigating the role of
social factors in the aetiology of affective disorders, particularly
depression. In recent years, the research has been extended to other
psychiatric and physical disorders and to studies of intervention schemes.
The team's work is internationally known for its development of new
interviewer-based measures of psychosocial and psychiatric phenomena. This
work is based at the College's central London base in Bloomsbury.
Professor Michael Bury has researched and published widely
in medical sociology, especially in the fields of quality of life
assessment, chronic illness and ageing. Professor Bury is also continuing
work with Dr Jonathan Gabe on the influence of the media on
health, health beliefs and behaviour. This work has recently been extended
to cover health promotion in mental health generally. He is also engaged
with Dr Mary Ann Elston, on a research project on the role of
friendship and informal support in the care of the dying. Dr Elston's
other research interests are in the history and organization of medical
care and biomedical science and in social movements related to health such
as the women's health movement. She has written extensively on the medical
profession, especially on the position of women, and on the relationship
between the anti-vivisection movement and biomedical research.
Lynda Stevens is engaged in collaborative research into the
impact of diabetes, particularly on young people.
G W Brown and T Harris (eds) Life Events and Illness, Guilford Press, 1989.
G W Brown and T Harris 'Aetiology of anxiety and depressive disorders in an inner city population: I Early adversity and II Comorbidity', Psychological Medicine, vol 23, 1993.
M R Bury and A Holme Life after Ninety, Routledge, 1991.
M R Bury and J Gabe 'Television and medicine: medical dominance or trial by media?' in J. Gabe et al (eds) Challenging Medicine, 1994.
M A Elston 'Women doctors in a changing profession: the case of Britain', in E. Riska and K. Wegar (eds) Gender, Work and Medicine, Sage, 1993.
M A Elston 'The anti-vivisectionist movement and the science of medicine', in J Gabe et al (eds) Challenging Medicine, 1994.
L K Stevens and J H Fuller 'Hypertriglyceridaemia and its relationship to mortality in diabetic patients', Diabetes, vol 42, Suppl 1, 30a, 1993.
N. Robinson and L.K. Stevens et al 'Education and employment in young diabetic patients', Diabetic Medicine, vol 10, 1993.
[Add some papers by Jonathan Gabe]