Dr Niamh Dooley completed a research masters in Cognitive Neuroscience in Leiden University, the Netherlands, and a PhD in psychiatric epidemiology in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). Her PhD focused on prenatal factors that may help explain variation in mental health later in life.

She first joined the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre at King's College London as a visiting researcher in 2022, working with Professor Louise Arseneault on the young adult outcomes of child mental disorder. Subsequently she worked as a statistician in clinical trials within the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King's. During this post, she also worked in the NIHR’s Research Support Service, supporting researchers and clinicians apply for funding and training schemes.

In 2024, she began a three-year fellowship which will investigate the youth mental health crisis from a public health perspective. The fellowship will take place between King’s and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. It is co-funded by Irish Research Council, the Health Research Board, the Environmental Protection Agency and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (https://dorothy.ie).

Research interests

• Recent trends in rates of mental health problems in adolescents (e.g. since 2018)
• Youth-oriented mental health services within Irish and UK mental health systems
• Integrating rapid data analysis and reporting within service evaluation and provision
• School-based interventions for child and adolescent mental health

Expertise and public engagement

• Mental Elf blog: What can GP records tell us about mental health throughout childhood?
• Open Access Government blog: The long shadow of childhood mental health problems
• The Independent: Irish study finds babies with higher birth weights have fewer mental health and behavioural issues in childhood
• Medical Xpress: New research reveals link between childhood mental health problems and quality of life for young adults
• Animated summaries of published research for example this post on X
• Communication with participants of the mySkin study of psoriasis and the Adolescent Brain Development study (data summaries; feedback sessions)

Key publications 

• Mental health of Irish adolescents following the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a population-based cross-sectional survey (2024)
• Functional Outcomes Among Young People With Trajectories of Persistent Childhood Psychopathology (2023)
• Explaining the Association Between Fetal Growth and Childhood ADHD Symptoms: Cross-cohort Replication (2022)
• Person-Centered Trajectories of Psychopathology From Early Childhood to Late Adolescence (2022)
• Childhood and adolescent psychotic experiences and risk of mental disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2019)