University of Tasmania, Australia

Professor of Psychiatry

BSc, MB ChB, GradDipClinEpi, MHA, PhD, AFRACMA, FRANZCP

General Responsibilities

Professor Mark Oakley Browne is the Statewide Clinical Director of Mental Health Services for the Tasmanian Government Department of Health and Human Services. He also holds a professorial position within the Discipline of Psychiatry, the University of Tasmania. He commenced in these positions in February 2009.

Professor Oakley Browne has responsibility for clinical governance policies and procedures within the public mental health services in Tasmania. He chairs the Clinical Governance Committee, Serious Incident Review, Credentialing Committee, Accreditation Committee, Pharmaceuticals and New Physical Therapies Committee, ECT Review Committee, and the Clozapine Review Committee.

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Publications

• Gale, C. K., Wells, J. E., McGee, M. A., & Oakley Browne, M. A. (2011). 98. A latent class analysis of psychosis-like experiences in the New Zealand Mental Health Survey. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 124, 205-213.
• Bromet, E., Andrade, L. H., Hwang, I., Sampson, N., Alonso, J., de Girolamo, G., de Graaf, R., Demyttenaere, K., Hu, C., Iwata, N., Karam, A., Kaur, J., Kostyuchenko, S., Lepine, J.-P., Levinson, D., Matschinger, H., Medina Mora, M. E., Oakley Browne, M., Posada-Villa, J., Viana, M. C., Williams, D., & Kessler, R. (2011). Cross-national epidemiology of DSM-IV major depressive episode. BMC Medicine, 9, 90-106.
• Levinson, D., Lakoma, M. D., Petukhova, M., Schoenbaum, M., Zaslavsky, A. M., Angermeyer, M., Borges, G., Bruffaerts, R., de Girolamo, G., de Graaf, R., Gureje, O., Haro, J. M., Hu, C. Y., Karam, A. N., Kawakami, N., Lee, S., Lepine, J. P., Browne, M. O., Okoliyski, M., Posada-Villa, J., Sagar, R., Viana, M. C., Williams, D. R., & Kessler, R. C. (2010). Associations of serious mental illness with earnings: results from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. British Journal of Psychiatry, 197(2), 114-121.
• Scott, K. M., Oakley Browne, M. A., & Elisabeth Wells, J. (2010). Prevalence, impairment and severity of 12-month DSM-IV major depressive episodes in Te Rau Hinengaro: New Zealand Mental Health Survey 2003/4. The Australian And New Zealand Journal Of Psychiatry, 44, 750-758.
• Wells, J. E., McGee, M. A., Scott, K. M., & Oakley-Browne, M. A. (2010). Bipolar disorder with frequent mood episodes in the New Zealand Mental Health Survey. Journal of Affective Disorders, 126(1-2), 65-74.
• Wiggins, A., Oakley Browne, M., Bearsley-Smith, C., & Villanueva, E. (2010). Depressive disorders among adolescents managed in a child and adolescent mental health service. Australasian Psychiatry, 18(2), 134-141.
• Stein, D. J., Ruscio, A. M., Lee, S., Petukhova, M., Alonso, J., Andrade, L. H. S. G., Benjet, C., Bromet, E., Demyttenaere, K., Florescu, S., de Girolamo, G., de Graaf, R., Gureje, O., He, Y., Hinkov, H., Hu, C., Iwata, N., Karam, E. G., Lepine, J.-P., Matschinger, H., Oakley Browne, M., Posada-Villa, J., Sagar, R., Williams, D. R., & Kessler, R. C. (2010). Subtyping social anxiety disorder in developed and developing countries. Depression And Anxiety, 27, 390-403.
• Oakley Browne, M. A., Wells, J. E., Scott, K. M., & McGee, M. A. (2010). The Kessler psychological distress scale in Te Rau Hinengaro: the New Zealand Mental Health Survey. The Australian And New Zealand Journal Of Psychiatry, 44, 314-322.

Web Access Research Portal (WARP)

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Additional Information

Research Interests

Professor Oakley Browne's research interests include: psychiatric epidemiology, evidence-based mental health and mental health service research.

In 1987, he was co-investigator for the Christchurch Psychiatric Epidemiology Study, which is one of a small number community mental health surveys undertaken within Australasia. This study led to more than 30 publications, including conjoint publications with the principal investigators from the USA Epidemiological Catchment Area Study, a landmark psychiatric epidemiology study.

From 1995 to 2001, Professor Oakley Browne was the “inaugural” editor for the Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Review Group, within the Cochrane Collaboration. With other members of the editorial group, he was responsible for the establishment and maintenance of this review group. This role required high-level expertise in critical appraisal of the literature, systematic reviews and meta-analysis.

Professor Oakley Browne also has expertise in the appraisal and development of clinical guidelines and has been involved in the development of clinical guidelines for the NZ Ministry of Health and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP). He has taught the principles and practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to undergraduate and postgraduate medical and health science students and is a co-author of a text book on the topic.

Professor Oakley Browne is the principal investigator for Te Rau Hinengaro: The New Zealand Mental Health Study, a national community mental health survey, which was undertaken as part of the World Health Organization and Harvard University sponsored World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative. Researchers from 32 nations are collaborating in this initiative. Professor Oakley Browne was responsible for conducting the pilot study for the New Zealand study and coordinating the activities of the research team responsible for the national survey. The New Zealand Ministry of Health governmental report and 10 core papers were published in September 2006. Professor Oakley Browne and other members of the research team continue to work on the NZ dataset and are contributing to the writing of a number of papers which present cross-national comparative data from the WMHS Survey Initiative. Professor Oakley Browne was a member of the Technical Advisory Group to the Department of Health and Ageing for the second Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Professor Oakley Browne is a medical graduate of the University of Otago (BSc 1975, MB ChB 1979) and a consultant psychiatrist and Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (FRANZCP, 1987). In addition to his undergraduate degrees and professional fellowship, he has a Graduate Diploma in Clinical Epidemiology (Newcastle, 1998) and a research doctorate (PhD, Otago, 1993).

The topic of his doctoral research thesis was within the fields of psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry. He extended his research training to include medical epidemiology, with a public health orientation, by undertaking the Graduate Diploma in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Newcastle. He has also completed further postgraduate training in administration in healthcare management (Master of Health Administration, University of New South Wales 2004) and is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (AFRACMA, 2008). His postgraduate training has given Professor Oakley Browne a strong methodological framework for undertaking quantitative mental health research with an applied focus, influenced by the public mental health perspective.