Professor Peter White

Biography

Peter White OBE MD FRCP FRCPsych is Emeritus Professor of Psychological Medicine at Queen Mary University of London. He was a consultant liaison psychiatrist at St Bartholomew’s hospital and co-led the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) service there. His clinical work involved assessing and caring for patients who had both a physical and mental health problem, such as cancer and depression, as well as co-leading an assessment and treatment service for patients suffering from CFS. He qualified in medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, and then trained in general medicine in Southampton, after which he received his psychiatric training at the Maudsley and St Bartholomew’s hospitals.

His interest in disability medicine comes from his research into understanding the links between disability and ill health, particularly focusing on an integrated understanding of how disability is affected by both physical and mental health problems. He advises a re-insurance company about disability related to both functional somatic ill health and mental ill health.

His research interests have included illnesses affecting both mind and body and understanding the links between them. His research has helped to establish the independent existence of CFS, the place of infections and exercise intolerance in either causing or maintaining CFS, and the role of rehabilitative treatments such as cognitive behaviour therapy and graded exercise therapy in improving patients’ health. More recent research has explored the factors leading to poor quality of life after cancer and developing interventions to improve it.

His broader activities have included work to reduce the stigma and discrimination of those suffering from mental health problems and being a consultant to the central London branch of the Samaritans and more latterly The Listening Place.