King's College London

Professor Carmine Pariante received the award for his contributions to the education of the public about mental illness and substance abuse research, and the positive impact of research on treatment through his work on the Inspire the Mind digital publication.

The ACNP Media Award recognises outstanding public education leaders who provide complete, accurate and unbiased information to our society about brain diseases. It will be presented to Professor Pariante at the 61st ACNP Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona between 4-7 December 2022.

Professor Pariante is the founder and editor-in-chief of ‘Inspire the Mind’, a digital publication produced by neuroscientists, psychiatrists and psychologists at King's College London. The blog brings together viewpoints of clinicians, researchers and other mental health professionals, as well as people’s own accounts of their lived experience. The aim of the blog is to provide an “all-encompassing, holistic approach to mental health-focused communication and translation, in order to destigmatize mental health”.

Inspire the Mind stands out among educational mental health websites in its broad attention to everyday mental health issues, including timely topics like parenting, career burnout and representation of mental illness in the media. It brings a different perspective from other mental health blogs; it complements people’s accounts by discussing the scientific evidence underpinning these personal experiences, while also sharing ongoing research and clinical work, discussion pieces, and the various links between culture and mental health.

The content is presented in a variety of approachable formats, such as blogs, video interviews and featured series on, for example, fatherhood and stress. The publication is overseen by scientists and clinicians and ensures that the information is of public interest and disseminated in an accurate manner. Since launching in 2019, Inspire the Mind has rapidly risen in popularity and prestige, recruiting nearly 300 writers, logging over 200,000 views, featuring in BBC Radio 4’s Beyond Today podcast, in the Evening Standard and being awarded the “Project of the Year" at the Mental Health Blog Award in 2022. They continue to broaden their audience with upcoming collaborations with documentary producers and international art exhibits.

Carmine Pariante is Professor of Biological Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London, and Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He is at the forefront of research on inflammation and mental health, with more than 300 papers published on this subject in the last 10 years. He investigates the role of stress and inflammation in the pathogenesis of mental disorders and in the response to psychotropic drugs, both in clinical samples and experimental settings. 

ACNP, founded in 1961, is a professional organisation of more than 1100 leading scientists, including four Nobel Laureates. The mission of ACNP is to further research and education in neuropsychopharmacology and related fields in the following ways: promoting the interaction of a broad range of scientific disciplines of brain and behavior in order to advance the understanding of prevention and treatment of disease of the nervous system including psychiatric, neurological, behavioral and addictive disorders; encouraging scientists to enter research careers in fields related to these disorders and their treatment; and ensuring the dissemination of relevant scientific advances.

We gratefully acknowledge support from the Wellcome Trust (Institutional Translational Partnership Award) for aspects of this work.

For further information, please contact the IoPPN Communications Team (ioppn-pr@kcl.ac.uk).