Professor Patrick McGorry

Patrick McGorry is currently Professor of Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, Clinical Director of ORYGEN Youth Health, and Executive Director of the ORYGEN Research Centre. ORYGEN’s 250 clinical and research staff provide leading expertise in early psychosis, mood, substance use, and personality disorders.

ORYGEN’s early psychosis service, known as EPPIC, was founded by Professor McGorry and colleagues in 1992, and has been highly influential internationally. Its model has been emulated in many countries in Europe and North America. ORYGEN provides clinical services to more than 700 young people at any one time. The ORYGEN Research Centre is currently conducting over 40 research projects across a wide variety of domains.

A prolific author, Professor McGorry has had more than 250 articles published in prestigious peer reviewed journals including, The Lancet, The British Journal of Psychiatry, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and The Medical Journal of Australia. Professor McGorry has also edited 5 books and written over 40 book chapters.

Professor McGorry has presented this research at more than 300 national and international conferences, including numerous invited presentations.

From 1987-1993 Professor McGorry was an Associate Investigator in an NHMRC funded Schizophrenia Research Unit. Since that time, he has gained subsequent grants totalling up to $100m from various government, philanthropic and private sources to continue the research and service reform agenda work established through ORYGEN. He is currently the Chief Investigator on a 5 year $7.4m NHMRC Program Grant from the Australian Government. He is the Editor in Chief for the Wiley-Blackwells journal “Early Intervention in Psychiatry”, Associate Editor for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, and is on the Editorial Boards of Schizophrenia Bulletin and Schizophrenia Research.

In addition to his significant contribution to the field of early psychosis and schizophrenia research, Professor McGorry has conducted important research several other areas of psychiatry including the mental health needs of the homeless, health needs and treatments for refugees and torture survivors, and in recent years the broader youth mental health field, including youth suicide, youth substance use and the treatment of emerging personality disorder.

Professor McGorry is currently the Treasurer of the International Early Psychosis Association, after stepping down from the Presidency in October 2006.

Professor McGorry has won several prestigious awards. In 1991, he was awarded the RNAZCP/Organon Junior Research Award for significant research contributions in the early phase of his career, which was followed by the RANZCP/Organon Senior Research Award in 1998.

In 2001, he received the Founders Medal of the Australian Society for Psychiatric Research Annual Scientific Meeting. And in 2003, the Australian Federal Government awarded Professor McGorry the Centenary Medal in recognition for the development of the EPPIC program. In 2006 he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.