Dr David Okai

Dr David Okai MRCPsych MD(Res) PGDip(CBT) is a Consultant Neuropsychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Clinical Lead for the Department, and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in Neurosciences in Oxford. He trained in psychiatry at the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital, and also spent some time at Queen Square Institute of Neurology.

During his training he undertook a diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and completed his doctorate (MDRes) in research psychology – based on the assessment and psychosocial management of Parkinson’s patients with complex neuropsychiatric conditions.

He currently serves on the board of directors for the British Neuropsychiatric Association (BNPA), and is a co-opted member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Faculty of Neuropsychiatry. He has been a founding member of the Faculty of Neuropsychiatry Movement Disorders Working Group; advisor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Management of the Neuropsychiatry of Parkinson’s; worked on the Clinical Advisory Panel of Parkinson’s UK; and was a member of the Movement Disorders Task Force on Rating Scales in ICBs.

He teaches nationally and internationally on many different areas of neuropsychiatry, and has published book chapters on neuropsychiatry/psychology, and general psychiatry. His main research interest is the psychosocial factors of Impulse Control Behaviours in Parkinson’s. He has additional interests in factors such as the real-world validity of psychological tests of dysexecutive syndrome. He is involved with ongoing work on a large prospective studies of PD progression and how this impacts on personality and behaviour in Oxford; NIHR funded projects on the neuropsychiatry of the autoimmune encephalopathies, and a further trial in Depression in Traumatic Brain injury.