Dr Tom Russ

Reader in Old Age Psychiatry

  • Division of Psychiatry, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
  • Dementia.ED
  • Neuroprogressive and Dementia Network, NHS Research Scotland

Contact details

Address

Street

Chancellor's Building
49 Little France Crescent
Edinburgh BioQuarter

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH16 4SB
Street

Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre
Edinburgh Futures Institute
1 Lauriston Place

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH3 9EF

Biography

Background

I trained in medicine and psychiatry in Edinburgh, the Highlands and London and work clinically with older people with dementia. My PhD was in dementia epidemiology. I am director of the interdisciplinary dementia research network Dementia.ED and the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre (PPLS, University of Edinburgh). I am an honorary Consultant Psychiatrist (NHS Lothian), National Clinical Lead for Neuroprogressive and Dementia Research with NHS Research Scotland, and an NIHR Senior Investigator.

I would like to encourage any students interested in dementia research, whether or not it happens to be in connection with an SSC block, to contact me about potential projects. I am or have recently supervised projects on temporal trends in dementia rates, music and dementia, and the concept of personhood in dementia so I’d be very pleased to hear from students whatever their focus of interest.

Qualifications

Bachelor of Science, University of Edinburgh: Medical Science with Honours in Psychology

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, University of Edinburgh

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Edinburgh: An integrated investigation into dementia risk factors: insights from geography, record linkage, and individual participant meta-analysis

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice , University of Edinburgh

Responsibilities & affiliations

Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland

Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, FRCPsych

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, FHEA

Associate Member of the Institute of Group Analysis

Certificate of Completion of Training in Old Age Psychiatry, CCT

 

Specialty Training Committee for Old Age Psychiatry, NHS Education for Scotland

Health Improvement, Protection and Services (HIPS) Research Committee, Chief Scientist Office

Medical Review Panel, Scottish Episcopal Church

Medical Member, Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland

Dementia experts panel, Global Burden of Disease (GBD) collaborator network

World Young Leaders in Dementia

Scottish Philosophy and Psychiatry special interest group

Undergraduate teaching

Year 1 MB ChB Social and Ethical Aspects of Medicine, Medical Ethics, Legal, and Professional Responsibilities

Final Year MB ChB students on clinical placements in psychiatry

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Behaviour and Mental Heath (Honours)

Advances in Dementia Research

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

  1. Elaine Addington (Advanced Care Research Centre [ACRC] Academy) 2024—
  2. Anna Bryan (ACRC Academy) 2021—
  3. Jane Dudman (ACRC Academy) 2024—
  4. Otto-Emil Jutila (MRC Precision Medicine Doctoral Training Programme) 2021—
  5. Sasha Lewis-Jackson (ACRC Academy) 2022—
  6. Luisa Parkinson (Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre [ASDRC]) 2018—
  7. Maija Pyykkönen (Race Against Dementia) 2025—
  8. Dr Josie Robertson (Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track [ECAT] – Wellcome Trust) 2023—
  9. Dr Charlotte Squires (ASDRC/Lothian Birth Cohort Studies) 2024—

Past PhD students supervised

  1. Jonny Flint (Advanced Care Research Centre [ACRC] Academy) 2021–26

       Thesis: Investigating the Genetic, Causal, and Molecular Architecture of Frailty: Insights from Polygenic, Mendelian Randomisation, and Multi-Omic Analyses

       Next stage after PhD: Post-doctoral research

  1. Martha Pollard (Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre [ASDRC]) 2018–26

       Thesis: A sociotheological exploration of what freedom means to carers in the context of dementia caring: the liberating impact of common humanity and community solidarity

       Next stage after PhD: Counselling career

  1. Rose Vincent (Alzheimer’s Society) 2020–26

       Thesis: Thematic Co-Analysis: the Development of an Accessible and Inclusive Method for Co-Producing Qualitative Data Analysis with Co-Researchers Living with Dementia

       Next stage after PhD: NHS research post

  1. Dr Katherine Walesby (ASDRC/Centre for Cognitive Ageing & Cognitive Epidemiology) 2015–25

       Thesis: Dementia and location: lessons from geography and data linkage to routinely collected data

       Next stage after PhD: NHS Clinical Training

  1. Helen Corby (Scottish Graduate School in Social Science) 2017–23

       Thesis: Factors associated with using a care home for older people living in Scotland: analyses using linked administrative data

       Next stage after PhD: Postdoctoral researcher, University of Edinburgh

  1. Dr Sahan Mendis (ASDRC) 2019–23

       Thesis: Exploration of relationships between life course measures of socioeconomic status and structural brain changes linked with older life cognitive decline

       Next stage after PhD: NHS Clinical Training and then NHS Consultant post

  1. Dr Donncha Mullin (Royal College of Psychiatrists/Masonic Charitable Foundation) 2020–23

       Thesis: Motoric cognitive risk: epidemiology of a walking speed-based syndrome to predict dementia

       Next stage after PhD: NHS Higher Training in Old Age Psychiatry then a Scottish Clinical Research Excellence Development Scheme (SCREDS) Clinical Lecturer, University of Edinburgh

  1. Jure Mur (Wellcome Trust Translational Neuroscience PhD Programme) 2019–23

       Thesis: Anticholinergic use in the UK: longitudinal trends and associations with cognitive outcomes

       Next stage after PhD: Academic career

  1. Stina Saunders (European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia [EPAD]) 2017–22

       Thesis: Impact of test, risk and diagnostic disclosures in suspected early neurodegenerative disease

       Next stage after PhD: Commercial research/Postdoctoral researcher, University of Edinburgh

  1. Miles Welstead (Age UK) 2019–22

       Thesis: Exploring frailty and cognitive functioning trajectories in later life

       Next stage after PhD: Postdoctoral researcher, University of Edinburgh

  1. Dr Ruth Sibbett (ASDRC) 2013–19

       Thesis: Ascertainment, prediction and implications of dementia diagnosis in a study of ‘healthy’ cognitive ageing: the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921

       Next stage after PhD: Career break for family reasons

  1. Dr Lucy Stirland (Psychiatry: Scottish Training in Academic Research [PsySTAR] Programme, Medical Research Foundation) 2016–19

       Thesis: Epidemiology of multimorbidity and polypharmacy in ageing: a complementary analysis of mental and brain health in three datasets

       Next stage after PhD: SCREDS Clinical Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, then an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Global Brain Health Institute, UC San Francisco

Research summary

All my research focuses on dementia and has the lived experience of people with dementia at its core. I take an interdisciplinary approach and have worked in projects focusing on data science, qualitative research, and clinical trials. I am NHS Research Scotland's national clinical lead for dementia and neuroprogressive research and work closely with NHS and social care colleagues to translate research into real world impact. I have increasingly worked with people with lived experience of dementia (either a diagnosis themselves or a close friend or relative of someone with a diagnosis) as co-researchers and actively promote NHS Research Scotland's wonderful group of "Partners in Research."

Past research interests

I am a life course epidemiologist and my doctoral research focused on geographical variation in dementia risk. This work found substantial variation with increased risk in the north of Scotland, Sweden, and Italy, compared to the south. In Sweden, even after taking account of genetic effects, the risk of dementia was still two-to-three times higher in the north compared to the south which suggests an environmental effect. I have developed this with colleagues across the UK and Sweden to investigate this further and am particularly interested in air pollution and vitamin D deficiency (which relates to sunlight). Dementia epidemiology, including geographical variation in dementia, environmental risk factors, and the life course approach Psychological distress as a risk factor Individual participant meta-analysis

Invited speaker

International Dementia Conference, Sydney (2024)

Organiser

European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium Autumn 2025 meeting, Edinburgh (https://eadc.online/meetings/#1714413793533-7473724b-98b6)

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