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aiMH Lab

applied informatics for Mental Health
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Repurposing

Drug-repurposing, which finds new indications for existing drugs, has recently emerged as a viable, efficient, low-risk and cost-effective method of improving treatment. Accordingly, there has been a growing effort to develop computational approaches to predict drug-repurposing associations, and large numbers of potential drug repurposing signals are being generated. However, how to further validate these potential signals and determine the appropriate next steps (e.g. to justify conducting a full randomised controlled trial) remains challenging. aiMH Lab uses electronic health record databases to validate potential drugs using target trial emulation. The advantages of this approach are speed, cost effectiveness, long follow-up, and inclusion of much larger and more representative samples than trials. Initially this project is focused on outcomes in severe mental illness. However, the methods developed will be generalizable to the wider field of drug-repurposing. Proof of this concept comes from Joseph Hayes’s previous research demonstrating decreased rates of psychiatric hospitalisation and self-harm in patients with severe mental illness during exposure to statins, calcium channel antagonists and metformin using a within-individual design (which accounts for all time fixed confounding). This study received global press coverage and other research groups have since validated these findings.

Publications

Use of gabapentinoid treatment and the risk of self-harm: population based self-controlled case series study

Andrew S C Yuen, Boqing Chen, Adrienne Y L Chan, Joseph F Hayes, D. Osborn, F. M. Besag, W. Lau, Ian C. K. Wong, Li Wei, K. Man

British medical journal, 2025

Comparative cardiometabolic safety and effectiveness of aripiprazole in people with severe mental illness: A target trial emulation

A. Richards-Belle, N. Launders, S. Hardoon, Alexander L. Richards, K. K. Man, N. Davies, E. Bramon, Joseph F Hayes, David P J Osborn

PLoS Medicine, 2025

Antidepressant treatment and mortality in people with comorbid depression and type 2 diabetes: UK electronic health record study.

Annie Jeffery, Kate Walters, Ian C K Wong, David Osborn, Joseph F Hayes

BJPsych Open, 2024

Antidepressant treatment and mortality in people with comorbid depression and type 2 diabetes: UK electronic health record study

Annie Jeffery, Kate Walters, Ian C K Wong, David Osborn, Joseph F. Hayes

BJPsych Open, 2024

ADHD Pharmacotherapy and Mortality.

A. Richards-Belle, N. Launders, Joseph F Hayes

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 2024

Prescribing of antipsychotics for people diagnosed with severe mental illness in UK primary care 2000-2019: 20-year investigation of who receives treatment, with which agents and at what doses.

A. Richards-Belle, N. Launders, S. Hardoon, K. K. Man, E. Bramon, David P J Osborn, Joseph F Hayes

The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 2024

Co-prescription of metformin and antipsychotics in severe mental illness: a UK primary care cohort study

Luiza Farache Trajano, Joseph F Hayes, N. Launders, Neil M Davies, David P J Osborn, A. Richards-Belle

medRxiv, 2024

Systemic medications and dementia risk: an umbrella review

N. Mukadam, Clara Belessiotis, Ying Feng Yap, Shivangi Talwar, Andrea Bruun, Wenqianglong Li, Harry Ward, Pilar A Letrondo, Madeleine Morelli‐Batters, Rongyu Lin, Michelle Eskinazi, Talen Wright, Joseph Hayes

Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2024

Lithium and the risk of fractures in patients with bipolar disorder: A population-based cohort study

V. W. Ng, M. T. Leung, W. Lau, Esther W. Chan, Joseph F. Hayes, David P J Osborn, Ching-Lung Cheung, Ian C. K. Wong, K. Man

Psychiatry Research, 2024

The association between antidepressant treatment and rates of insulin initiation in comorbid depression and type 2 diabetes: A UK electronic health record nested case-control study.

Annie Jeffery, Kate Walters, Ian C. K. Wong, David Osborn, Joseph F. Hayes

Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 2023

Vaccine effectiveness of BNT162b2 and CoronaVac against SARS-CoV-2 omicron infection and related hospital admission among people with substance use disorder in Hong Kong: a matched case-control study

Caige Huang, Yue Wei, Vincent K. C. Yan, Xuxiao Ye, Wei Kang, H. H. Yiu, J. Shami, B. Cowling, M. Tse, D. J. Castle, C. Chui, F. Lai, Xia Li, E. Wan, C. Wong, Joseph F Hayes, W. Chang, A. K. Chung, Chak S. Lau, I. Wong, E. Chan

Lancet psychiatry, 2023

Association between statins and the risk of suicide attempt, depression, anxiety, and seizure: A population-based, self-controlled case series study.

Xuxiao Ye, J. E. Blais, Vanessa W S Ng, D. Castle, Joseph F. Hayes, Yue Wei, Wei Kang, Le Gao, Vincent K. C. Yan, I. Wong, E. Chan

Journal of affective disorders, 2022

Doxycycline exposure during adolescence and future risk of non-affective psychosis and bipolar disorder: a total population cohort study

Fredrik Upmark, H. Sjöqvist, J. Hayes, C. Dalman, H. Karlsson

Translational Psychiatry, 2021