Professor Osvaldo Almeida

Director of Research
osvaldo.almeida@uwa.edu.au

OPA is the Professor and Chair of Geriatric Psychiatry at the University of Western Australia, Director of Research of the Western Australian Centre for Health & Ageing, and Consultant geriatric psychiatrist at the Royal Perth Hospital. He completed his undergraduate and specialist medical training at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and his research postgraduate training (PhD) at the Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital, in London. The work arising from his PhD contributed to better characterise the psychotic states of later life and led to a series of manuscripts and invited editorials. This work further contributed to the development of new guidelines for the diagnosis of psychotic states in later life that were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2000. Between 1994 and 1998 OPA worked in Brazil, where he turned his attention to the potential role of sex hormones in modulating physical and mental health. In collaboration with others, OPA demonstrated that oestradiol has measurable and clinically relevant antidepressant properties during the menopausal transition. The results of this work were published in the Archives of General Psychiatry and the results were hailed as a 'long overdue breakthrough' by an accompanying editorial.

OPA moved to Australia in 1998 and has since been running a research program designed to identify and, whenever possible, modify risk factors associated with poor mental health outcomes in later life. He and his colleagues demonstrated, in a series of observational studies and RCTs, that chemical castration leads to an increase in the serum concentration of beta-amyloid (JAMA 2001;285:2195-6), but that oestradiol replacement therapy fails to reduce cognitive decline or depressive symptoms in women older than 70 years (Neurobiology of Aging 2006;27:141-9). The group has also shown that high plasma homocysteine is associated with cognitive impairment and depression in later life, and that treatment with vitamins B6, B12 and folate reduces total plasma homocysteine and the serum concentration of beta-amyloid (particularly amongst those with low B12), but has no obvious effect on cognitive function or mood (Stroke 2006;37:547-9). His most recent research has focused on cardiovascular risk factors associated with depression and improvement of health outcomes for older people with depression. To date, he has published 176 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 19 invited manuscripts, 7 books, 1 web-based research resource, 37 book chapters, 102 abstracts and 3 booklets for patients. OPA’s current ISI metrics for international peer-reviewed publications show an average of 16 citations per paper.

OPA has been awarded numerous grants over the past 5 years, attracting approximately $12,000,000 in competitive research funding (mostly from NHMRC project grants and special programs). He has been a panel member of the NHMRC Project (2005, 2006) and Program Grants (expert, 2004), and has reviewed project and program grants for various national and international research agencies. He also reviews manuscripts for numerous scientific journals. He is an Associate Editor of International Psychogeriatrics, the journal of the International Psychogeriatric Association. OPA has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings.

Further information on Professor Almeida, including his list of publications, is available here [ PDF 0.2MB ].