Rate My Professor Peter Butterworth

Professor Peter Butterworth is an Honorary Professor at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, and serves as a Visitor in the Department of Health Economics, Wellbeing and Society. His academic background and research experience is in psychiatric epidemiology, psychology, and biostatistics. Butterworth's broad research interests include the social causes and social consequences of common mental disorders across the lifecourse. He undertakes policy-relevant research and maintains a strong track record of partnership with policymakers from various Commonwealth government departments. Specific research areas encompass epidemiology, health promotion, environmental and occupational health and safety, mental health, developmental psychology and ageing, social policy, and demography.

As principal investigator, Butterworth leads key projects such as the Personality & Total Health (PATH) Through Life, a major longitudinal community survey; Social costs of adolescent mental health problems in Australia; Welfare receipt, demoralisation and mental health; and Work Well Being. He contributes as a researcher to initiatives including DYNOPTA, LifeTrack: Understanding Suicidal Transitions, and Translating Research into Practice – Dementia and Public Health (TRIP-DPH). His publication record features over 220 peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters. Notable works include 'Effect of lockdown on mental health in Australia: evidence from a natural experiment analysing a longitudinal probability sample survey' (The Lancet Public Health, 2022), 'Protecting mental health during periods of financial stress: Evidence from the Australian Coronavirus Supplement income support payment' (Social Science & Medicine, 2022), 'The effects of working in a bullying climate on psychological distress and job satisfaction: a multilevel analysis' (Australian Journal of Psychology, 2022), 'Accuracy of the PHQ-2 Alone and in Combination With the PHQ-9 for Screening to Detect Major Depression' (JAMA, 2020), and 'Accuracy of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for screening to detect major depression: individual participant data meta-analysis' (BMJ, 2019). Butterworth is funded by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT13101444) and holds a professorial position at Deakin University School of Psychology.