The Nottingham Psychiatric Archive

1. Introduction

2. Background

3. The Nottingham Studies

4. Archive Structure

5. Phases of Work

6. The Archive

7. Accessing the Archive

Aspects of Psychiatric Research in Nottingham, and the Legacy of Duncan Macmillan

Dedicated to the memory of Dr Duncan Macmillan, O.B.E., B.Sc., M.D., FRCP(Ed).

In 1930, at the age of 28, Duncan Macmillan was appointed as Deputy Medical Superintendent, and became Superintendent in 1940. He retired aged 65 in 1967, and died suddenly aged 67 in 1969 while on holiday. He thus spent 37 years at Mapperley Hospital, 27 as Medical Superintendent.

This archive is a bibliography of research done in Nottingham that follows on from the interests of Duncan Macmillan, plus a collection of hard copies of documents that reflect Professor John E. Cooper’s work with the World Health Organisation on case registers and the classification and epidemiology of psychiatric disorders.

Professor John E. Cooper was appointed in 1971, and retired in 1991. He started preparation of this Archive in the 1990s, for many years with the help of Dr Ian Medley, and latterly with the support of Dr Stuart Leask who created these pages. Dr Neil Nixon is currently designated as Keeper of the Archive; send any enquiries to him at neil.nixon@nottingham.ac.uk. The ultimate responsibility for the Archive rests with whoever is Head of the Department of Psychiatry, currently (2021) Professor Martin Orrell.

This Archive contains the following:-

1. A bibliography of research done in Nottingham that follows on from the interests of Dr Duncan Macmillan on the design of mental health services and the epidemiology of severe mental disorders . The Archive does not cover the wide variety of studies carried out in Nottingham on other topics by other researchers.

2. A hard copy section, located at the Kings meadow Campus, that includes Professor Cooper’s personal collection of rating scales and interviewing schedules by a variety of authors that reflect his interest in the classification and epidemiology of mental disorders, structured interviewing and case registers. Some of these were developed during the course of studies with the World Health Organization.

3. Two aspects of the US/UK Diagnostic Project with which Professor Cooper was concerned before being appointed to Nottingham (i) a note on the history of the first five years of the Project (1965 – 1970) and (ii) the personal memories and reflections of surviving members of the Project written in 2020 (50 Years later)..

4. The rating schedules used in the DOSMED study, the data obtained, and 'narrative summaries' for each individual in the study in Nottingham.

5. There are also a small number of copies of important letters about the US/UK Project in the hard copy section; the originals and many others about the US/UK Project are held in the archive of the ' Museum of the Mind' located at the Royal Bethlem Hospital , c/o Archivist Mr David Luck.