I studied Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford.  Prior to my current position, I was Reader in the Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College London.

I supervise research projects for the intercalated Psychology and Medicine degree.  I supervise medical Student Selected Component projects.  I mentor undergraduate medical students.

My main research interest is in identifying what causes adolescent depression and why it recurs.  I study development across the lifespan and am interested in identifying causal risk and protective factors that can be targeted as part of psychological and public health interventions.  I use a range of approaches including longitudinal prospective studies and genetic epidemiology to test if environmental risk exposures have causal effects on mental health.  I am also interested in the links between school and young people’s mental health.

I am lead supervisor to two PhD students: Naomi Warne and Victoria Powell.  I co-supervise Dr Sarah Argent and Sarah Nazzari (University College London).  I supervise research projects for intercalated degrees as well as offer psychology placements and medical student selected component projects.

My current active grants are all on the topic of depression or mental health in young people.

Current funded projects:

Early-onset depression: characterising development and identifying risks.  MRC 2017-2020.

Social and economic consequences of health: causal inference methods and longitudinal, intergenerational data.  The Health Foundation 2018-2021.

Integrating genetic, clinical and phenotypic data to advance stratification, prediction and treatment in mental health. MRC 2018-2020.

Key selected papers:

Rice, F., Sellers, R., Hammerton, G., Eyre, O., Bevan-Jones, R., Thapar, A.K., Collishaw, S., Harold, G.T., Thapar, A. (2017). Antecedents of new-onset major depressive disorder in adolescence: a longitudinal familial high-risk study. JAMA Psychiatry, 74(2), 153-160.

Rahman, M.A., Todd, C., John, A., Tan, J., Kerr, M., Potter, R., Kennedy, J., Rice, F., Brophy, S (2018). School achievement as a predictor of depression or self-harm in adolescence- a linked education and health record study. British Journal of Psychiatry. DOI:  10.1192/bjp.2017.69

Rice, F., Langley, K., Woodford, C., Davey Smith, G., Thapar, A (forthcoming).  Identifying the contribution of prenatal risk factors to offspring development and psychopathology: what designs to use and a critique of literature on maternal smoking and stress in pregnancy. Development and Psychopathology.

Rice, F., Rawal, A., Riglin, L., Lewis, G., Lewis, G., Dunsmuir, S (2015).  Examining reward-seeking, negative self-beliefs and over-general autobiographical memory as mechanisms of change in classroom prevention programs for adolescent depression.  Journal of Affective Disorders. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.07.019.

Rawal, A., Collishaw, S., Thapar, A., Rice F (2013).  “The risks of playing it safe”: A prospective longitudinal study of response to reward in the adolescent offspring of depressed parents.  Psychological Medicine, 43(1), 27-38.

Rice, F., Harold, G.T., Boivin, J., Hay, D., van den Bree, M.M.B., Thapar, A. (2010). The effects of gestational stress on offspring birth weight and psychopathology: disentangling prenatal environmental and inherited influences.  Psychological Medicine 40(2):335-45.

Rice, F., Harold, G.T., Boivin, J., Hay, D., van den Bree, M.M.B., Thapar, A (2009).  Disentangling prenatal and inherited influences in humans with an experimental design. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106 (7), 2464-2467.

Selected previous projects:

Examining pathways linking psychological adjustment and academic attainment across the transition to secondary school.  The Nuffield Foundation.

Neurocognitive predictors of adolescent depression: a high risk longitudinal study.  Medical Research Council.

Predicting and preventing adolescent depression.  Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust.

Investigating links between adolescent depression, stress and physical health.  British Medical Association.