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PaulWicksPaul Wicks, PhDResearch Scientist 
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About Me
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Paul Wicks (BSc Dunelm, PhD London, CSci) is part of the research team at PatientsLikeMe. He was born in Reading, England and spent several years living in Switzerland and the United States during childhood. He developed an interest in human biology at A-Level and chose to read Psychology at Durham University. Following his undergraduate degree he was awarded a prize PhD studentship at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. His supervisors were Dr. Laura Goldstein and Dr. Sharon Abrahams, both of whom have undergone clinical and academic training and are two of the leading authorities on the psychological consequences of ALS/MND. The PhD was under the overall supervision of Professor Nigel Leigh.
Paul travelled the UK testing patients with rare forms of ALS/MND, specifically the genetically inherited familial form of the disease, and progressive muscular atrophy (PMA), which affects only the lower motor neurones. As an adjunct to his main project Paul also carried out the UK's largest survey of depression and anxiety in MND from a 12-month consecutive sample from King's College Hospital. He completed his PhD thesis in three years and passed his viva with no corrections; a rare achievement.
During the three years of his PhD he became heavily involved in supporting the Motor Neurone Disease Association; helping to raise £30,000 of donations, writing information sheets, training healthcare professionals, and giving talks to local branches. He has spoken at a number of national and international conferences, and has twice won the British Neuropsychiatry Association prize for best speaker. More recently, Paul has been employed by the Parkinson's Disease Society under Professor Richard Brown on a three year project to investigate whether depression in Parkinson's disease is different to that found in people without a neurological disease.
The son of an IT marketing consultant, Paul has always been at one with technology and interested in communicating ideas. He was the webmaster at the BUILD (Building User Involvement in MND) project, the UK's largest forum for people with ALS/MND, for five years. He also created the research volunteer database "MindSearch" at the Institute of Psychiatry which is estimated to save hundreds of researcher labour-hours and thousands of pounds each year. Paul has consulted for UK GRAD, an organisation involved in teaching transferable skills to PhD students, and was founder and editor-in-chief of a web based magazine for PhD students in the UK.
In his spare time, Paul enjoys working.
Wicks P, Abrahams S, Masi D, Hejda-Forde S, Leigh PN, Goldstein LH (2007) Prevalence of depression in a 12-month consecutive sample of patients with ALS, European Journal of Neurology
Wicks P (2007) Excessive yawning is common in the bulbar-onset form of ALS, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, (Correspondence) May 24th 2007
Wicks P, Abrahams S, Leigh PN, Goldstein LH (2007) re: A rapid screening battery to identify frontal dysfunction in patients with ALS, Neurology online (Correspondence) March 10th 2007
Wicks P, Ganesalingham J, Collin C, Prevett M, Leigh NP, Al-Chalabi A (2007) Three soccer playing friends with simultaneous amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; 8(3):177-179
Wicks P (2007) Recruiting your control group; lynchpin or afterthought?, The Psychologist, Volume 20, pt. 1
Wicks P, Abrahams S, Leigh PN, Williams T, Goldstein LH (2006) Absence of cognitive, behavioral, or emotional dysfunction in progressive muscular atrophy, Neurology, Volume 67, p. 1718-1719
