Rate My Professor Sarah Byford

Sarah Byford is Professor of Health Economics, Head of the Department of Health Service and Population Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, and Director of King's Health Economics at King's College London. She also serves as Deputy Chair of the King's College London Research Degrees Exam Board. Byford joined King's College London in 2000 after working at the Centre for Health Economics, University of York, and the Health Economics Research Group, Brunel University. Her academic qualifications include a PhD from King's College London (2009), two MSc degrees from the University of York (2004 and 1993), and a BSc from Brunel University London (1992). She teaches modules on health economics, economic evaluation methods, and critical appraisal of health economic evidence.

Byford's research focuses on the economic evaluation of mental health and social care services, with particular expertise in interventions for children and adolescents experiencing depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, autism, and first-episode psychosis, as well as adult services addressing depression, addiction, domestic abuse, and perinatal mental health. Her scholarly impact is substantial, with over 27,600 citations and an h-index of 81 on Google Scholar. Key publications include 'A pragmatic randomized controlled trial of cognitive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents exposed to multiple traumatic stressors: the DECRYPT trial' (2025, World Psychiatry), 'Agreeing a set of biopsychosocial variables for collection across the UK Eating Disorders Clinical Research Network (EDCRN): A consensus study using adapted nominal group technique' (2025, BMJ Mental Health), 'Accepting your Body after Cancer (ABC), a group-based online intervention for women treated for breast cancer: Study protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial' (2025, BMJ Open), 'Incidence of anorexia nervosa in young people in the UK: a national population-based cohort study' (2019, BMJ Open), and 'Joint crisis plans for people with psychosis: economic evaluation of a randomized controlled trial' (2007). Byford influences policy and practice as a member of the NHS England Perinatal Mental Health Economics Group and Adult Eating Disorders Expert Reference Group, advisory groups for ESRC Mental Health Networks, and Expert Adviser to the NICE Centre for Guidelines. She is on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Psychiatry International and Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.