About Orchard OCD
We built a community of interdisciplinary professionals and work with them closely to progress together in developing new and better treatments for patients suffering from OCD.
Our Vision
is a world where all patients suffering from OCD receive effective treatment for their condition.
Our Mission
is to build that world by advancing collaborative translational research and driving the quest for new and better treatments for OCD.
Our Goals
We have a three-pillar approach,
1. Research (fund and run clinical trials)
2. Hubs (OCD research database and repository)
3. Dissemination (awareness campaigns and conferences)
Our Team
Margherita works for Orchard OCD and manages their communications and fundraising. She experienced severe OCD during her adolescence and young adulthood. She is passionate about Orchard’s work to collaborate closely with interdisciplinary professionals and progress in developing new and better treatments for patients suffering from OCD. If you have any communications or fundraising queries, please email her at margherita@orchardocd.org
Nick is a serial social entrepreneur with 15+ years experience in medical charities. Most recently, he founded and led a successful consortium developing a treatment for Black Bone Disease, an ultra rare genetic disease affecting his children. Nick is also an OCD patient.
Sean Fletcher has been broadcasting on the BBC, ITV and Sky for more than 15 years. His journalism includes the Panorama investigation, Kids in Crisis, which asked whether the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services are fit for purpose. He also presents on Countryfile, Inside Out and Good Morning Britain. Sean’s son has OCD.
Neil has worked in healthcare strategy and external affairs for almost 20 years, with charities, professional medical organisations and businesses. Most recently, he launched and established MQ, the UK’s leading mental health research charity, as a member of the organisation’s founding Executive team. He has lived-experience of OCD.
Naomi is a consultant psychiatrist with 20+ years experience in systematic investigation and treatment of OCD. Naomi serves on the UK’s NICE Guidelines Committee for OCD. She is also running an OCD specialist centre at the Hertfordshire Partnerships Mental Health Trust, Queen Elizabeth II Hospital.
Vincenzo is Head of Business Planning & Operations and Chief of Staff for Data Science and AI at AstraZeneca with 20 years’ experience working for GlaxoSmithKline and Astrazeneca. He has developed an expertise in neuroscience, patient centricity and business development.
The Work We Do
Psilocybin: According to a research project in 2006, psilocybin has been reported to significantly reduce OCD symptoms in OCD patients. Despite positive results, no further research has been carried out due to lack of funding.
Orchard collaborated with Professor David Nutt, Imperial College London, and Professor Naomi Fineberg, Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, to run a pilot clinical trial using psilocybin to treat OCD. We raised £60,000 from a crowdfunding campaign in 2020 which was match funded by a foundation. The study has now started and will last 18 months, recruiting and following up 15 patients.
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCS): We received funding for our second research project in September 2020. Research at the University of Hertfordshire involves working on a promising new treatment that involves passing a small, almost imperceptible electric current into brain areas connected to OCD.
Scientific Advisory Board
Dr Lynne Drummond is an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at SW London and St George’s NHS Trust and Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire. She has worked in the area of OCD, anxiety, and mental health over the past 4 decades as both a clinician and researcher. Publishing well over 100 articles in the academic press. In addition, she has written 4 best-selling books on CBT and OCD. Passionate about public education about mental health, she has made many TV and radio appearances as well as published in the lay press. Her new book “Everything You Want to Know About OCD” which includes a large section on self-help was published by Cambridge University Press in July 2022.
Dr. Jim Hagan is a Senior Research Fellow in Neurosciences at Sosei-Heptares, working on drug discovery programmes for neuropsychiatric indications. Previously, he was the CEO at GMEC, a not-for-profit company formed by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Imperial College, UCL, King’s College London and Queen Mary College London to foster biomedical translational research. He was Vice President and Head of Biology in the Psychiatry Centre of Excellence in Drug Discovery at GSK.
Stuart Montgomery is emeritus professor of Psychiatry at Imperial College London. He is a past President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) and of the British Association of Psychopharmacology (BAP). His research in OCD has been seminal, as were his efforts in establishing educational charities in OCD. His rating scale in depression, the MADRS, is regarded as the most sensitive instrument and is widely used. He was a founding editor of European Neuropsychopharmacology and has edited International Clinical Psychopharmacology for 25 years.
Dr. Carolyn Rodriguez is assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science at Stanford University, School of Medicine. She utilises her training as a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and clinical researcher to innovate rapid-acting treatments to relieve the suffering of patients with severe mental illnesses, including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. More about Carolyn. Rodriguez Lab.
Prof Trevor Robbins is a professor of cognitive neuroscience with an international reputation in the fields of cognitive neuroscience, behavioural neuroscience and psychopharmacology. He is Director of the University of Cambridge’s Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (BCNI) and is leading a multi-million-pound research study into the neuroscience of OCD.
Dr. Susanne Ahmari is assistant professor of Psychiatry at University of Pittsburgh, and Director of the Translational OCD Laboratory. Dr. Ahmari’s research program integrates basic neuroscience approaches and cutting-edge technology in animal models with clinical and post-mortem studies of OCD patients. Her ultimate goal is to identify molecular, cellular, and circuit-level changes that underlie the onset and persistence of abnormal repetitive and compulsive behaviors, and use this information to develop neuroscientifically-based treatments for OCD and other related disorders. More about Susanne.
Dr. Sabine Bahn is a practising psychiatrist, Chair in Neurotechnology and Director of the Cambridge Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research at Cambridge University. Her main research interests are to understand the molecular basis of neuropsychiatric disorders and develop novel diagnostics and therapeutics for psychiatric disorders, with a focus on schizophrenia and mood disorders. Sabine has published over 200 research articles and has co-founded 2 spin-out companies. Since 2015, Sabine has been a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. She is also fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. More about Sabine. Bahn Lab.
Our Supporters
We have been awarded £10,000 from the National Lottery Awards for All scheme to fund part of our OCD video series. We are filming this series in 2023. A huge thank you to the National Lottery for making this happen.
We are pleased to have received funding from the Hospital Saturday Fund towards our OCD patient registry. The Hospital Saturday Fund is a registered charity whose aims are to provide assistance for registered health charities, hospices, medical organisations and individuals with a medical condition or disability.
We are thankful to Faiz for his continuous help and suggestions. Faiz’s background is in medical research and the pharmaceutical sector. He has practical experience of launching and publicising the work of non-profit organisations, especially in the field of healthcare and education. Faiz has a PhD. in Immunopharmacology from St. Thomas’ Hospital London.
We are pleased to be part of the Cambridge Social Ventures programme in the Centre for Social Innovation at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/social-innovation/cambridge-social-ventures/
Orchard OCD is very pleased to be receiving funding from the Bally's Foundation for a two-year project to build an international registry of OCD patients. Registries are crucially important for medical research as they can accelerate recruitment into clinical trials of potential treatments and increase our understanding of a disorder such as OCD by asking patients to report their symptoms and current treatments. The Bally's Foundation was founded in February 2020 and is funded by the Gamesys Group; the funds come from both corporate contributions and employee initiatives. The main focus of the Bally's Foundation is to preserve and protect the wellbeing of individuals suffering from mental health issues. They do this through providing grants and funding to organisations who care for these individuals directly, as well as those who focus on research in the mental health field.
Caffeine created our name, brand identity, look and feel advised on strategy and positioning. We are infinitely grateful to Ged, Andy and the team at Caffeine for their incredible creativity and strategic knowledge. Caffeine is set up to work with leaders helping them grow brands, business and people fast. Their latest book for leaders ‘Superfast – How to Lead at Speed’ is out now. We highly recommend it.
We are grateful to Chas, David and Garth, our web developers, for their excellent work, continuous advice and support. www.chameleonstudios.co.uk
We thank Hogan Lovells for their help with our registration process with the Charity Commission. www.hoganlovells.com
We are grateful to Jamie, who designed our first logo for our initial name the ‘OCD Research Partnership’. www.pixellove.com
Our Volunteers
Tracy works in local government in a strategy and policy team. She has lived with OCD for over 30 years and continues to learn about how this can impact life, and how it can be tackled, from her own experiences and those of other people. Tracy wants to support the work to find new treatments and make them accessible so that OCD doesn’t get in the way of people living their lives fully.
Sheena is a music specialist, working with children who have learning and communication difficulties. She is also a mother of two daughters and a son. One of her daughters has had OCD for 20 years. Having witnessed how destructive and debilitating OCD can be, Sheena is keen to support research into new and effective treatments, and to help promote a greater understanding of OCD.
Jordan first started experiencing the symptoms of OCD at 19 and had a long and difficult road to recovery. He hopes to help make this road an easier and shorter one for those with OCD by volunteering with Orchard OCD, thereby supporting research into new and better treatments.
Yasmin is a therapeutic counsellor with an interest in delivering and developing evidence-based psychological interventions for anxiety and OCD-related disorders. She has suffered with OCD for most of her life but has found the therapeutic help she has received from others, particularly in the form of talking therapies, invaluable and life-changing. Yasmin wishes to help fellow OCD sufferers in whatever small way she can.
Lynn is a mother of twin daughters, Charlotte and Samantha (aged 29), mental health counsellor and author of Hope with Eating Disorders 2nd edition, Hope with OCD, Hope with Depression, Hope with Anxiety (to be published 19th November 2020) and Fundamentals: A Guide for Parents, Teachers and Carers on Mental Health and Self-Esteem. Samantha is a published poet (Hope through Poetry, to be published 8th October 2020) and a drama graduate, having suffered from mental illness herself, she is now an advocate for mental health and recovery. Charlotte is Samantha’s twin, and PA for Lynn Crilly, she is passionate about raising awareness about mental illness and talking openly about the struggle of being a sibling of someone suffering.
commercial Partner. This means the studies that we fund may be eligible to access the NIHR
Study Support Service which is provided by the NIHR Clinical Research Network.
