Mood Instability Research

Our research looks at mood instability, which means frequent and sudden changes in emotions that are hard to control. This is common in many mental health conditions and can lead to behaviors like self-harm. For young people, it’s often one of the first signs that something is wrong. Despite its clinical significance, we still don’t fully understand what causes it, and there aren’t many early interventions designed to help.

Our team works together with young people experts by experience to better understand what maintains mood instability and to develop new therapies, with a particular focus on mental imagery. All our studies are supported by a Young People Advisory Group. We use a range of different disciplines such as psychiatry, experimental psychopathology, psychopharmacology, and cognitive neurosciences.  We use digital tools to track symptoms, understand how they work and create new treatments.

Our key research questions:

1. What are the cognitive mechanisms that drive mood instability and associated behaviours?  
2. Can we translate neurocognitive findings into developing new brief early interventions for young people experiencing mood instability and associated behaviours?
3. What happens to young people who experience mood instability in and outside clinical services?

You can find our team values here.

Our Team

Other team affliates

Miss Minseo Cho - PhD Student, Dyson School of Design Engineering 

Miss Anna Caltabiano - PhD Student, Dyson School of Design Engineering 

Dr Alex Lau-Zhu - MRC Clinician Scientist, University of Oxford; Honorary Research Associate  

Mr Anthony Wang - Undergraduate Honorary Research Assistant