School of Health & Wellbeing

Dr Katie Nicol

  • Research Fellow (Mental Health & Wellbeing)

Biography

Dr Katie Nicol is a Research Fellow in the School of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow, and a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, and Orygen, Melbourne. Her research focusses on early intervention, and improving the health and wellbeing of young people with severe and complex mental health difficulties, specialising in personality disorder.

Katie was awarded her PhD in Clinical and Molecular Medicine (Psychiatry and Neuroimaging) at the University of Edinburgh, where she also completed a post-doctoral fellowship, before accepting a position in the personality disorder research team (HYPE) at Orygen, a specialist youth mental health service in Melbourne, Australia.

Katie's research expertise includes randomised controlled trials, neuroimaging, service model evaluation, and novel intervention implementation and feasibility. Her research aims to improve not only symptoms of mental illness, but occupational and social functioning, and how young people can be supported to engage meaningfully in the life they want to lead. Katie is currently exploring how underserved and marginalised populations can be more effectively and representatively included in research, and is passionate about reducing health inequalities and stigma in this population.

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Prior publications

Article

Pereira Ribeiro J et al. (2025) Treatment Moderators of Symptom Severity in Psychotherapy for People with Borderline Personality Disorder: Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses of Individual Participant Data. Psychotherapy and psychosomatics Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1159/000548417)

Chanen AM et al. (2025) Baseline correlates of functional impairment at 12 months in young people with borderline personality disorder: findings from the MOBY trial. European child & adolescent psychiatry Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1007/s00787-025-02742-5)

Messina NL et al. (2025) Effect of Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination on immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 vaccination. Clinical & translational immunology Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1002/cti2.70023)

Pittet LF et al. (2024) Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination to prevent febrile and respiratory illness in adults (BRACE): secondary outcomes of a randomised controlled phase 3 trial. EClinicalMedicine Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102616)

Messina NL et al. (2024) Specific and off-target immune responses following COVID-19 vaccination with ChAdOx1-S and BNT162b2 vaccines-an exploratory sub-study of the BRACE trial. EBioMedicine Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105100)

Chanen AM et al. (2024) Psychopathology and psychosocial functioning among young people with first-episode psychosis and/or first-presentation borderline personality disorder. Schizophrenia research Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2024.02.010)

Pittet LF et al. (2023) Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination for protection against recurrent herpes labialis: a nested randomised controlled trial. EClinicalMedicine Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102203)

Salmon AP, Nicol K, Kaess M, Jovev M, Betts JK, Chanen AM (2023) Associations of state or trait dissociation with severity of psychopathology in young people with borderline personality disorder. Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1186/s40479-023-00226-z)

Aleva A, Betts JK, Cotton SM, Laceulle OM, Hessels CJ, van Aken MAG, Nicol K, Chanen AM (2023) Emotion dysregulation in young people with borderline personality disorder: One pattern or distinct subgroups? Personality disorders Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1037/per0000617)

Pittet LF et al. (2023) Randomized Trial of BCG Vaccine to Protect against Covid-19 in Health Care Workers. The New England journal of medicine Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1056/nejmoa2212616)

Katie Nicol (2023) Borderline personality disorder: not what it used to be Medicine Today Katie Nicol.

Chanen AM, Nicol K (2022) Five Failures and Five Challenges for Prevention and Early Intervention for Personality Disorder. Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1176/appi.focus.22020016)

Bell I et al. (2022) Digital technology for addressing cognitive impairment in recent-onset psychosis: A perspective. Schizophrenia research. Cognition Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1016/j.scog.2022.100247)

Juurlink TT, Betts JK, Nicol K, Lamers F, Beekman ATF, Cotton SM, Chanen AM (2021) Characteristics and Predictors of Educational and Occupational Disengagement Among Outpatient Youth With Borderline Personality Disorder. Journal of personality disorders Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1521/pedi_2021_35_534)

Jenkins CA, Thompson KN, Chanen AM, Hartmann JA, Nicol K, Nicholas CL (2021) Subjective and objective sleep in young people with borderline personality disorder features. Journal of sleep research Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1111/jsr.13463)

Chanen AM, Nicol K (2021) Five failures and five challenges for prevention and early intervention for personality disorder. Current opinion in psychology Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.12.005)

Chanen AM et al. (2020) INdividual Vocational and Educational Support Trial (INVEST) for young people with borderline personality disorder: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1186/s13063-020-04471-3)

Chanen AM, Nicol K, Betts JK, Thompson KN (2020) Diagnosis and Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder in Young People. Current psychiatry reports Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1007/s11920-020-01144-5)

Whalley HC, Nickson T, Pope M, Nicol K, Romaniuk L, Bastin ME, Semple SI, McIntosh AM, Hall J (2015) White matter integrity and its association with affective and interpersonal symptoms in borderline personality disorder. NeuroImage. Clinical Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2015.01.016)

Nicol K, Pope M, Hall J (2014) Facial emotion recognition in borderline personality: an association, with childhood experience. Psychiatry research Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2014.04.017)

Nicol K, Pope M, Sprengelmeyer R, Young AW, Hall J (2013) Social judgement in borderline personality disorder. PloS one Katie Nicol. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073440)

Nichola M. Brydges, Matthew Leach, Katie Nicol, Rebecca Wright, Melissa Bateson (2011) Environmental enrichment induces optimistic cognitive bias in rats Animal Behaviour Katie Nicol. ISSN 0003-3472 (doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.09.030)

Supervision

Current PhD students:

Monica Ghoyal (University of Glasgow)

Service utilisation and pathways to care for young people with features of borderline personality disorder

Ashleigh Salmon (University of Melbourne)

Long term outcomes of first presentation borderline personality disorder.

 

Completed Masters of Clinical Psychology students:

Grace van Veenendaal (University of Melbourne)

Characterising eating disorders in young people with borderline personality disorder

Lili-Belle Vincent (University of Melbourne)

Young people’s lived experience of an early intervention for personality disorder service model of care: A cross-sectional descriptive study

 

Completed Masters of Epidemiology students:

Ashleigh Salmon (University of Melbourne)

Does prior child protection or youth justice involvement predict early dropout from a specialist, outpatient BPD program for young people? Protocol for a Victorian cohort study linking routinely collected administrative data

 

Completed Doctor of Medicine students:

Georgia Delahunty (University of Melbourne)

Predictors of physical and psychosocial quality of life among young people with borderline personality disorder features

Harrison Chapman (University of Melbourne)

Relational aggression and adverse parental relationships in young people with borderline personality disorder

 

Completed Psychiatry Registrar Scholarly Projects:

Christine Rizkallah (Melbourne Health)

Prescribing practices among young people with borderline personality disorder in specialised care: a secondary analysis from the MOBY clinical trial