About
Professor Serfaty is an experienced and empathic clinician with over 35 years’ practice. He is one of the few dual trained consultants (psychiatrist and an accredited cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) psychotherapist), with expertise in both psychological and pharmacological treatments.
For academic details see https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8388-0776 and https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/6511-marc-serfaty/about
Position at Priory
Professor Serfaty has been a consultant psychiatrist at Priory Hospital North London since 1996 and also holds a number of honorary consultant contracts at a range of NHS Trusts in North London as part of his role as a clinical academic at University College London (UCL).
- BSc Med Sci (Hons)
- MBChB
- FRCPsych
- MPhil
- FHEA
- CertCBT
- FBABCP
- BABCP (Accredited)
- MD (Research)
Professional registrations:
- CCST in acute adult psychiatry
- Approved clinician by the secretary of state under section 12(2) of the Mental Health Act (MHA) E&W
- On the General medical Council (GMC) specialist register for general psychiatry (GMC 3084041)
Training
Professor Serfaty completed an intercalated BSc (Hons) in Medical Sciences (Physiology) at St Andrews University (1978-1982). He achieved at least a merit or distinction in every exam taken. His clinical training (MBChB) was at Manchester University (1982-1985), working as a houseman and then as a lecturer in anatomy for a year. He trained in Psychiatry at Edinburgh University, as a rotational registrar (1987-1991), completing a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree, investigating benzodiazepine suicides and parasuicides. He worked as a senior registrar and lecturer in psychiatry at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1991-1996), and also trained as a CBT therapist at the Newcastle Cognitive Therapy Centre, coming first in his year and obtaining a distinction (CertCBT). He is accredited in CBT and a fellow of the British Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapies (FBABCP). While he was a senior lecturer at UCL (1996-2013) he completed a Doctorate (MD Res) titled: “The use of melatonin for sleep disturbance in depression and dementia.” He is a qualified university teacher, and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). In 2018, Marc Serfaty was promoted to professor of psychotherapy research, and also continues to work as a consultant psychiatrist.
Professor Serfaty has over 37 years of experience working as a psychiatrist. His current clinical post is at Priory Hospital North London, and an independent health care organisation is funding his Professorship at UCL. He has ensured that Priory Hospital North London is a teaching hospital, linked to UCL. He is lead consultant for day care and supervises CBT therapists and psychology students in their practice. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (FRCPsych). He is recognised under section 12 of the Mental Health Act, by the secretary of state as an approved clinician and is also on the GMC register as specialist in psychiatry.
He has extensively contributed to both undergraduate and postgraduate medical training and is an examiner for UCL and is a joint collaborator in running the depression and anxiety module in UCL’s MSc in Psychiatry.
Professor Serfaty is a UCL examiner and also one of the core consultants at Priory Hospital North London.
Qualifications
- Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (FRCPsych) - Royal College of Psychiatrists (Member 1991, Fellow 2018)
- Fellow of British Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapy (FBABCP) – BABCP, 2016
- Doctor of Medicine (MD) - University College London, 2006
- Diploma in Teaching as Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA) - Higher Education Academy, 1999
- Accredited CBT therapist (BABCP) - British association of Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapists, 1993
- Certificate in CBT (CertCBT) - Newcastle Cognitive Therapy Centre,
- Master of Philosophy (MPhil) - University of Edinburgh, 1993
- Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) - University of Manchester, 1985
- Bachelor of Medical Science, Honours (BSc (Hons)) - University of St Andrews, 1982
Languages
- Fluent French
- Working knowledge of Russian
Research interests
Professor Serfaty is a general psychiatrist, and a specialist in CBT and related therapies, including a third wave CBT called acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). He is interested in helping and testing people from marginalised populations, including older people, cancer patients, people with eating disorders, people with a learning disability, people with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), older victims of crime, and more recently, victims of hate crime. He is interested in the emerging evidence for ACT, which helps people engage in things that are important to them and face their fears.
Professor Serfaty has conducted and/or collaborated in a range of randomised controlled trials (RCTs).
He has conducted a trial of ACT in people with advanced cancer, and has engaged in research on ACT in people with motor neurone disease (MND) and an ongoing trial of ACT for older people with treatment-resistant anxiety disorder.
Professor Serfaty has conducted novel and pioneering work through RCTs. These include trials of talking therapies:
- CBT for anorexia nervosa, informing National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. Results: dietary advice alone is not beneficial
- CBT by email for bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder (BED). Results: email helps with engagement
- CBT versus aromatherapy massage for depression and anxiety in cancer. Results: CBT appears promising and suggests a benefit for both interventions
- CBT for depression in older people. Results: individual CBT effective, dispelling the prejudice that ‘you cannot teach an old dog new tricks’. Improvement was not due to common factors in therapy, but rather specific CBT techniques
- Helping Aged Victims of Crime (HAVoC), the impact of crime (trauma) in older people may benefit from a CBT-based Victim Improvement Package (VIP). More recent work, however, was interrupted by the pandemic and further research is required
- CBT for anxiety and depression in intellectual difficulties. Results: CBT appears promising
- CBT for depression in advanced cancer, delivered through improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT) may not be effective treatment
- CanTalk: A national UK study investigating the clinical and cost effectiveness of CBT in people with advanced cancer and depression. This did not find a benefit of CBT in this group
- CanACT: A pilot trial of ACT in people with cancer in palliative care. This suggested that giving people space to talk or ACT may be useful
- An RCT of ACT for people with MND (COMMEND) found that this was helpful with respect to the individual’s function and also with measures of mental health
- Preliminary work suggested a benefit for ACT in older people with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) – FACTOID study. We are now conducting a fully powered trial of ACT for older people with treatment-resistant GAD (CONTACT-GAD trial)
Professor Serfaty has also been involved in a number of RCTs testing pharmacological agents. Some have been placebo controlled and others compared pharmacological agents against talking therapies:
- Professor Serfaty's interest in chronobiology, through his doctoral work, investigated the use of melatonin for sleep disturbance in dementia and depression respectively. Melatonin appeared to show a trend towards benefit with respect to depressive symptoms in people with depression, but it was not helpful in controlling the sleep-wake cycle in people with dementia
- Triple chronotherapy for a rapid response for people with depression. This pilot study suggested a benefit and calls for more research
- Trial of sertraline versus CBT for GAD (ToSCA study) showed it was difficult to recruit people as they often did not wish to take medication. However, we hope to, in part, see whether ACT is useful for treatment-resistant GAD in older people (see above)
- The ADePT trial was a trial of antidepressants in Parkinson's disease (ADepT-PD), comparing escitalopram and nortriptyline for depressive symptoms. Unfortunately, it needed to be abandoned because of recruitment problems imposed by COVID-19.
Professor Serfaty has led on the development of a number of treatment manuals:
- CBT for anorexia nervosa
- CBT for people with intellectual difficulties (Hassiotis et al)
- CBT for older victims of crime (Serfaty et al)
- ACT for people with advanced cancer (Serfaty)
- Talking control manuals for older people with depression (Serfaty)
- Talking control for people with advanced cancer (Serfaty et al)
- CBT for people with advanced cancer (Moorey and Serfaty)
- ACT for people with MND (Gould et al)
- ACT for treatment-resistant GAD in older people (Gould et al)
- Professor Serfaty is also developing a manual for the treatment of hate crime
Professor Serfaty has also been involved in research on scale development. These include scales to measure stigma in mental illness, the development of a cosmetic screening questionnaire for people with BDD and measures of safety seeking behaviours in older victims of crime.
Professor Serfaty has also contributed to a number of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, including determining the use of light therapy in depression, whether antidepressants are helpful in chronic pain, the impact of crime and interventions used in older victims of crime, the interventions used in victims of crime in people of all ages, and the impact and treatment of hate crime.
Professor Serfaty and his team have also conducted qualitative work on stigma and mental illness, the experience of talking therapies in cancer, intellectual difficulties, experiential avoidance in cancer, people’s experience of ACT as a therapy in both cancer and treatment-resistant GAD, their experience of being a victim of crime, and their experience of being a victim of hate crime.
Books/other publications
- Serfaty M, Broadway-Horner M, Hassiotis A. The Application of CBT for Adults with Learning Disabilities. In: Todd G, Branch R, eds. Evidence-Based Treatment for Anxiety Disorders and Depression: A Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Compendium. Cambridge University Press; 2022:507-532.
- Serfaty, M., Ohlin, S., Blanchard M. (2013). Victim Improvement Package (VIP): A manual of cognitive behaviour therapy for Helping Aged Victims of Crime (HAVoC) with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress. (Therapists’ version). London: University College London and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.
- Cognitive Behaviour Psychotherapy, (2000) Marc Serfaty and David Clark, in Psychotherapy, 3rd Edition, Harold Maxwell, Editor.
Teaching interests
Background to taught programmes
Professor Serfaty is an accredited teacher and Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Postgraduate teaching: 1996-2006.
- He set up the MRCPsych academic postgraduate psychiatric trainee programme, developed to be consistent with the syllabus detailed by the RCPsych. It was regarded as one of the best academic training programmes in the UK which achieved consistently high pass rates on the theory papers for candidates sitting the MRCPsych exam. Elements of this are still used as the template for the MRCPsych course at UCL
- He was responsible for the psychotherapy academic programme on the MRCPsych course, where he introduced novel and up to date psychotherapeutic interventions onto the training programme, including interventions such as ACT
- He consistently achieved extremely high ratings for teaching on the MRCPsych course
- Professor Serfaty is currently joint module lead for the anxiety and depression module on the MSc in Psychiatric Research at UCL. This is one of the most popular courses and modules in the UK with extremely high standards
Current teaching commitments:
Professor Serfaty has a liaison role between UCL and Priory. He conducts regular lectures in primary care to GPs and to GP training schemes on behalf of UCL and PHNL. Talks have included seminars on CBT for depression, anxiety and panic, CBT for cancer, sleep problems, CBT for eating disorders and obesity, ACT and work-related stress. These seminars consistently achieve high ratings and disseminate findings from research at UCL
Professor Serfaty supervises and teaches psychotherapy practitioners at Priory Hospital North London weekly, encouraging them to practise new skills using role plays
Professor Serfaty has been actively involved in disseminating knowledge in both CBT and ACT, including delivering talks at national and international conferences to mental health practitioners. He has trained over 150 therapists in these modalities and continues to actively supervise therapists for a number of research trials
Professor Serfaty has been involved in training specialist psychologists in how to apply their skills to people with cancer. This includes training IAPT therapists across the UK, as well as the application of ACT to specialists in this field
Professor Serfaty has supervised a number of PhD students who have successfully completed their PhD undergraduate teaching
Professor Serfaty is the academic tutor for 11 cohorts of 4 medical students sent to Priory Hospital North London from the UCL every year as part of the medical student rotation, having set up the undergraduate training package for medical students, which has consistently received high ratings through independent online feedback
Professor Serfaty provides a weekly input to a consultant led academic programme at Priory Hospital North London