About
Dr Anil Kumar is a licensed and registered medical practitioner, approved under section 12 of the Mental Health Act. Dr Anil Kumar has more than 26 years of experience in psychiatry and has been a consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley for close to 18 years. He is currently the consultant for the Forensic Community Team at Southwark and the Forensic Ward in the community. Dr Anil Kumar has been a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists since July 2000 and was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal College (FRCPsych) in October 2019. He is on the General Medical Council’s Specialist Register, with General Psychiatry as his speciality, and Substance Misuse Psychiatry as his sub-specialty.
Dr Kumar has been working as a fee-paid Medical Member of the First-Tier Tribunal Health, Education and Social Care Chamber (Mental Health) since September 2018. He has been an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurology since 2016, a medical student firm head since 2017 and the College Tutor to the Borough of Croydon since June 2019. Dr Anil Kumar was appointed as the Royal College of Psychiatry Regional Advisor for South East London in August 2020. He has been a Consultant Appraiser for the last five years and is responsible for the appraisal of up to five consultants a year.
He has a wide range of experience treating patients above the age of 18 in a variety of settings, including community, acute inpatient (including psychiatric intensive care units (PICU)), and day patients. He is very experienced in treating first episode and chronic psychosis, treatment-resistant psychosis, mood disorders such as mania, depression and bipolar affective disorder and addictions such as alcohol, opiate and recreational drug dependence. Further to this, he is also very experienced in treating stress disorders such as acute stress reaction, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex-PTSD, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety disorders, somatisation disorder, and personality disorders.
Dr Kumar has more than 25 years of experience in managing, assessing and treating first episode and complex psychotic and mood disorders. He has had the opportunity to train in one of the earliest first episode psychosis services in the UK and ran specialist mood disorder clinics. He also has a special interest in cognitive deficits in psychotic illness. He researched the pharmacological management of psychosis, the cognitive deficits in first-episode and chronic schizophrenia, how they could be improved, and the effect of medication on emotion processing in schizophrenia.
He trained as an SpR at the National Alcohol Unit and Drug Dependency Unit. Although he worked in general psychiatry after a brief stint as a locum substance misuse consultant, he is skilled in managing alcohol, opiate and other substance misuse problems as well as patients with a dual diagnosis of a mental illness and substance misuse.
Dr Kumar is well experienced in managing PTSD, complex PTSD and dissociation in an acute inpatient setting as well as in the community. He has extensive experience in the treatment and management of chronically traumatised patients, presenting with episodes of self-mutilation/ self-harm or patterns of self-destructive behaviours and has had basic training in trauma therapies.
Dr Kumar is one of the few doctors to have received formal six months of training in cross /transcultural psychiatry as a senior house officer (SHO)/core trainee. He has continued to develop his skills to understand and manage cultural variations that affect the symptoms and clinical presentation of mental health problems.
He has had formal training in psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) at SHO/core trainee level, mindfulness-based therapies and a type of trauma therapy called Life Span Integration. He has been running Balint groups for medical students for the last four years and has regular supervision for this.
Dr Kumar was awarded the Civil Cardiff University Bond Solon Expert Witness Certificate in April 2017. The three-part assessment included an assessment of his expert witness report, evaluation of his performance under cross-examination and a multiple-choice examination on law and procedure. He was awarded the Family Cardiff University Bond Solon Expert Witness Certificate in October 2017.
Position at Priory
I worked at Priory Hospital Ticehurst House from 2006-2008 and have recently re-joined Priory as a visiting consultant working at Priory Hospital Roehampton.
Training
Dr Kumar completed his undergraduate medical degree in India and came to the UK to do his postgraduate training. After passing the PLAB examination, he had an SHO role in transcultural psychiatry in Bradford for six months, before joining the Sheffield SHO rotation. As an SHO, he worked in all the general psychiatry sub-specialties, including forensic psychiatry and substance misuse.
Dr Kumar moved to London to research the aetiopathogenesis of psychosis at the Institute of Psychiatry, after passing his MRCPsych. He worked as a clinical research worker in the section of cognitive psychopharmacology for a year and then joined the clinical SpR training. He has worked as an SpR in the National Alcohol Unit, and Drug Dependency Unit, in addition to holding special interest sessions in a first episode psychosis service, as well as a mood disorder clinic. He was awarded his CCST on 31st March 2004 in general psychiatry as his main speciality and with a sub-specialty endorsement in substance misuse psychiatry. He held a locum consultant post in substance misuse in the last year of his SpR training but opted to work in general psychiatry after that with a particular interest in the management of dual diagnosis clients.
Research Interests
Dr Kumar has published 26 data-based papers on clinically relevant areas such as insight, cognition and treatment in schizophrenia in top peer-reviewed journals such as Brain, Biological Psychiatry, Schizophrenia Bulletin, British Journal of Psychiatry and Schizophrenia Research. All his research was in areas that have a significant clinical application. He was involved in research which looked at why schizophrenia patients lack Insight into their illness, how this could be improved and also looked into their coping mechanisms. He has researched into cognitive deficits in first-episode and chronic schizophrenia, how it could be improved, and the effect of medication on emotion processing in schizophrenia.
Another exciting research project that he was part of, examined uncontrollable auditory hallucinations and sensory gating deficits as well as verbal self-monitoring in schizophrenia, and how to manage them. He was the lead clinician looking into the effects of acute nicotine on brain function. His main research in the last ten years was looking into the factors which lead to better responsiveness to CBT in psychosis. His team showed that CBT attenuates brain responses to threatening stimuli. He has also been involved in research looking into cerebral and autonomic responses to emotional facial expressions in depersonalisation disorder and pathophysiological mechanisms of depressive symptoms in schizophrenia.
Links to clinicle articles/research papers
- The relationship of structural alterations to cognitive deficits in schizophrenia: a voxel-based morphometry study. : Antonova E, Kumari V, Morris R, Halari R, Anilkumar A, Mehrotra R, Sharma T
Biol Psychiatry. 2005 Sep 15;58(6):457-67.
- Prefrontal Cortex and Insight in Schizophrenia: A Volumetric MRI Study
Sapara1, A., Cooke1, M., Fannon2, D., Peters, E., Barkataki2, I., Aasen1, I., Anil Kumar1, A., Francis and Buchanan., Kuipers1, E., Kumari1, V.: Schizophr Res. 2007 Jan;89(1-3):22-34. Epub 2006 Nov 13
- Limbic and Prefrontal responses to facial emotion expression in depersonalisation. Erwin Lemche, Simon A. Surguladze, Vincent P. Giampietro, , Ananthapadmanabha Anilkumar, Michael J. Brammer, Gasston, D. Chitnis, X., David, A.S., Williams, S.C.R., Joraschky, P., Phillips, M.L
Neuroreport. 2007 Mar 26;18(5):473-79
- Insight, distress and coping styles in schizophrenia.
Michael Cooke1, Emmanuelle Peters1, Dominic Fannon2, Anantha PP Anilkumar2, Ingrid Aasen1,2, Elizabeth Kuipers1, Veena Kumari1*
Schizophr Res. 2007 Aug; 94(1-3):12-22. Epub 2007 Jun 11.
- The Effect of Long-Acting Risperidone on Working Memory in Schizophrenia: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.
Surguladze SA, Chu EM, Evans A, Anilkumar AP, Patel MX, Timehin C, David AS.
J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2007 Dec;27(6):560-570.
- Neural Effects of Ziprasidone Monotherapy in First-Episode Schizophrenia: A Longitudinal Study using fMRI and a Procedural Learning Paradigm
Veena Kumari, Anantha PP Anilkumar, Dominic H ffytche, Ravi Mehrotra, Martina T Mitterschiffthaler, Tonmoy Sharma
Journal Clinical Schizophrenia & Related Psychoses. Volume 1, Number 4 / January 2008. 317-327
- A pilot personality disorder outreach service: development, findings and lessons learnt
Tennyson Lee, Duncan McLean, Paul Moran, Hugh Jones, and Anil Kumar Psychiatr Bull 32(4), April 2008: 127-130.
- Uncontrollable voices and their relationship to gating deficits in schizophrenia
.Kumari V, Peters ER, Fannon D, Premkumar P, Aasen I, Cooke MA, Anilkumar AP, Kuipers E.
Schizophr Res. 2008 Apr;101(1-3):185-94. Epub 2008 Feb 11.
- An fMRI study of face encoding and recognition in first-episode schizophrenia
Anantha P. P. Anilkumar, Veena Kumari, Ravi Mehrotra, Ingrid Aasen, Martina T. Mitterschiffthaler, Tonmoy Sharma
Acta Neuropsychiatrica June 2008 - Vol. 20 Issue 3 , pages 129–138
- Cerebral and autonomic responses to emotional facial expressions in depersonalisation disorder.
Lemche E, Anilkumar A, Giampietro VP, Brammer MJ, Surguladze SA, Lawrence NS, Gasston D, Chitnis X, Williams SC, Sierra M, Joraschky P, Phillips ML. Br J Psychiatry. 2008 Sep;193(3):222-8.PMID: 18757982
- Functional MRI of Verbal Self-monitoring in Schizophrenia: Performance and Illness-Specific Effects.
Kumari V, Fannon D, Ffytche DH, Raveendran V, Antonova E, Premkumar P, Cooke MA, Anilkumar AP, Williams SC, Andrew C, Johns LC, Fu CH, McGuire PK, Kuipers E.
Schizophr Bull. 2008 Nov 7.
- Effects of acute nicotine on brain function in healthy smokers and non-smokers: estimation of inter-individual response heterogeneity.
Ettinger U, Williams SC, Patel D, Michel TM, Nwaigwe A, Caceres A, Mehta MA, Anilkumar AP, Kumari V.
Neuroimage. 2009 Apr 1;45(2):549-61. Epub 2008 Dec 30.
- A longer duration of schizophrenic illness has sex-specific associations within the working memory neural network in schizophrenia.
Elsabagh S, Premkumar P, Anilkumar AP, Kumari V.
Behav Brain Res. 2009 Jul 19;201(1):41-7. Epub 2009 Jan 29.
- Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Activity Predicts Responsiveness to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Schizophrenia.
Kumari V, Peters ER, Fannon D, Antonova E, Premkumar P, Anilkumar AP, Williams SC, Kuipers E.
Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Sep 15;66(6):594-602. Epub 2009 Jun 27.PMID: 19560121 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
- Structural magnetic resonance imaging predictors of responsiveness to cognitive behaviour therapy in psychosis.
Premkumar P, Fannon D, Kuipers E, Peters ER, Anilkumar AP, Simmons A, Kumari V.
Schizophr Res. 2009 Dec;115(2-3):146-55. Epub 2009 Sep 5.PMID: 19734016
- Emotion processing in schizophrenia: fMRI study of patients treated with risperidone long-acting injections or conventional depot medication.
Surguladze SA, Chu EM, Marshall N, Evans A, Anilkumar AP, Timehin C, McDonald C, Ecker C, Phillips ML, David AS.
J Psychopharmacol. 2010 Apr 1. PMID: 20360158 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
- The perception of real and illusory motion in schizophrenia.
Crawford TJ, Hamm JP, Kean M, Schmechtig A, Kumari V, Anilkumar AP, Ettinger U.
Neuropsychologia. 2010 Aug;48(10):3121-7. Epub 2010 Jun 25.PMID: 20600182
- Coping styles predict responsiveness to cognitive behaviour therapy in psychosis.
Premkumar P, Peters ER, Fannon D, Anilkumar AP, Kuipers E, Kumari V.
Psychiatry Res. 2011 May 30;187(3):354-62. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2010.12.029. Epub 2011 Jan 22. PMID:21262541
- Neural changes following cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis: a longitudinal study.
Kumari V, Fannon D, Peters ER, Ffytche DH, Sumich AL, Premkumar P, Anilkumar AP, Andrew C, Phillips ML, Williams SC, Kuipers E.
Brain. 2011 Aug;134(Pt 8):2396-407. doi: 10.1093/brain/awr154. Epub 2011 Jul 19.PMID:21772062
20.Sensorimotor gating and clinical outcome following cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis.
Kumari V, Premkumar P, Fannon D, Aasen I, Raghuvanshi S, Anilkumar AP, Antonova E, Peters ER, Kuipers E.
Schizophr Res. 2012 Feb;134(2-3):232-8. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2011.11.020. Epub 2011 Dec 3. PMID:22138048
- Use of electronic health records in identifying drug and alcohol misuse among psychiatric in-patients
James Bell, Cise Kilic, Reena Prabakaran, Yuan Yuan Wang, Robin Wilson, Matthew Broadbent, Anil Kumar and Vivienne Curtis
Psychiatric Bulletin (2013) 37: 15-20 doi: 10.1192/pb.bp.111.038240
- Harnessing clinical psychiatric data with an electronic assessment tool (OPCRIT+): the utility of symptom dimensions.
Brittain PJ, Lobo SE, Rucker J, Amarasinghe M, Anilkumar AP, Baggaley M, Banerjee P, Bearn J, Broadbent M, Butler M, Campbell CD, Cleare AJ, Dratcu L, Frangou S, Gaughran F, Goldin M, Henke A, Kern N, Krayem A, Mufti F, McIvor R, Needham-Bennett H, Newman S, Olajide D, O'Flynn D, Rao R, Rehman IU, Seneviratne G, Stahl D, Suleman S, Treasure J, Tully J, Veale D, Stewart R, McGuffin P, Lovestone S, Hotopf M, Schumann G.
PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e58790. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058790. Epub 2013 Mar 8. PMID:23520532
- Neurophysiological correlates of excitement in Schizophrenia.
Sumich A, Castro A, Anilkumar AP, Zachariah E, Kumari V.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2013 Oct 1;46:132-8. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2013.06.018. Epub 2013 Jul 6. PMID:23838273
- Sex specific event-related potential (ERP) correlates of depression in Schizophrenia.
Sumich A, Anilkumar AP, Kumari V.
Psychiatr Danub. 2014 Mar;26(1):27-33.PMID:24608149
- .Orbitofrontal cortex, emotional decision-making and response to cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis.
Premkumar P, Fannon D, Sapara A, Peters ER, Anilkumar AP, Simmons A, Kuipers E, Kumari V.
Psychiatry Res. 2015 Mar 30;231(3):298-307. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.01.013. Epub 2015 Jan 19.PMID:2565947
- Common and distinct neural effects of risperidone and olanzapine during procedural learning in Schizophrenia: a randomised longitudinal fMRI study.Kumari V, Ettinger U, Lee SE, Deuschl C, Anilkumar AP, Schmechtig A, Corr PJ, Ffytche DH, Williams SC.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2015 Sep;232(17):3135-47. doi: 10.1007/s00213-015-3959-1. Epub 2015 May 19. PMID:25980483
- Schizophr Res. 2017 Apr 20. pii: S0920-9964(17)30222-0. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2017.04.035.
Pituitary volume reduction in schizophrenia following cognitive behavioural therapy.
Premkumar P, Bream , Sapara , Fannon , Anilkumar AP, Kuipers E , Kumari,V