About
Dr Broadhead has been a consultant psychiatrist at Priory Hospital Hayes Grove, since 2002, when he returned from New Zealand. In 2004, he was appointed hospital medical director. In 2012, he was appointed clinical director for private practice for Priory Group. Since 2017, he has concentrated on clinical work. Over the last ten years he has been lead consultant for Priory Hayes Grove’s Keston Unit which is for NHS patients with psychiatric disorders occurring in the context of an autistic spectrum condition.
Training
Dr Broadhead was awarded an open exhibition to Exeter College, Oxford, where he read medicine, specialising in neuroscience, and then completed his clinical training at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, passing final exams with distinction (1983). After working in general surgery, oncology and neurology he became increasingly aware of the primacy of mental health as the determinant of a person’s quality of life. He trained in psychiatry at the prestigious Maudsley Hospital in south London (1985 – 1994), with experience in the fields of old age, general adult, child and addictions psychiatry. During this time he completed a research degree (MPhil) about bipolar illness.
He was appointed to a consultant post at the Bethlem & Maudsley NHS Trust, South London, in 1994. In that role he began development of the Mother and Baby Mental Health Services in Croydon, which were awarded the Sir Graham Day Award (for NHS service development, UK) in 1998.
Research interests
Dr Broadhead has spent approaching ten years working overseas, including roles as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore (1987), as a lecturer in psychiatry at the University of Zimbabwe (1990-1992) and as clinical director for Mental Health Services in West Auckland, New Zealand (1998-2002). He was an honorary clinical lecturer in the section of general practice and mental health at the Institute of Psychiatry (2003 – 2013). In those countries and in the United Kingdom, he has gained considerable experience teaching about mental health to different professional groups and conducting research projects.
His research and publications (see below) include in basic science, on pituitary function and the effect of Alzheimer's disease on the amygdala, about psychiatric illnesses including depression, mania and Alzheimer's disease, on the role of social factors in the development of anxiety and depressive illness, and models for establishing mental health services in developing countries. This latter work was in Zimbabwe and continues. He retains a strong interest in teaching and assisting with the development of mental health services in sub-Saharan Africa.
Current research interests are about affective disorder (anxiety and depression) and the autistic spectrum.