My interest in psychiatry emerged from a brief but intense experience of restlessness (akathisia) and loss of pleasure (anhedonia) after taking haloperidol as a medical student. I continue to be restless in the quest for better treatments in psychiatric care, but have no anhedonia in doing so. In fact, I derive immense pleasure from the small amount of clinical work that I am able to do with people who have experience with psychosis and depression.

My research in London focuses on speech, neurochemistry, and neuroimaging markers among first episode psychosis patients from the Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychosis at London Health Sciences Centre. This research has a broad focus on exploiting neuroscience to inform early interventions for youth in need. To this end, we take a pragmatic approach: we use all accessible tools that are promising and continue to collaborate with any researcher that is appreciative of the urgency of early intervention in psychiatry.

I welcome medical students, MD/PhD and graduate applicants to approach for supervision, and I will be more than happy to share the interesting bits of a clinical academic career that do not appear in a CVs. PS: Palaniyappan is pronounced as PALA – NEE – APEN [Tamil].