David Taylor FFRPS FRPharmS (born 1963) is a British professor. He is the head of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Clinical Academic Group within

King's Health Partners King's Health Partners is an academic health science centre located in London, United Kingdom. It comprises King's College London, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and South London and Ma ...

. Taylor has been lead author and editor of the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry since 1994. In 2014, Taylor was named as one of the top 100 clinical leaders in the UK National Health Service.

Early life and education

First edition of Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines

Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines In Psychiatry

Taylor was born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

in 1963 and attended

Loughborough Grammar School Loughborough Grammar School is a 10–18 Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boys' school in the town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, founded in 1495 with money left in the will of Thomas Burton (merchant), Thomas Burton. To ...

(1975-1982). He is the second of four brothers. His younger brother is the presenter and historian, Stephen Taylor. His father, James Taylor CChem MRSC, contributed to the development of sodium cromoglycate. MPG15

Taylor was guitarist in New Wave group The Thought Police, who supported

Theatre of Hate Theatre of Hate are a British post-punk band formed in London, England, in 1980. Led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Kirk Brandon (formerly of The Pack), the original group also consisted of bassist Stan Stammers (formerly of The Straps ...

on their 1981 UK tour. A keen rugby player, Taylor played three seasons for Loughborough Grammar School first team and was later captain o
Old Pauline FC
1st XV, for whom he made over 300 appearances, many alongside fellow Old Loughburian Patrick MacLarnon. In 2023, Taylor completed th
London Marathon
in just over four hours. Taylor obtained a BSc in pharmacy and an MSc in clinical pharmacy from the

University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based in Brighton on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992. T ...

. He later gained a PhD in clinical pharmacology at King’s College, London. He is a fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (FRPharmS), a fellow of that organisation’s faculty (FFRPS) and an elected fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh (FRCPEdin). In 2021 he was made an honorary fellow of the

Royal College of Psychiatrists The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental healt ...

(FRCPsych Hon) in recognition of his "outstanding contribution to the profession and the cause of mental health".

Career

Taylor's first experience in psychiatry was in 1986 – a brief placement at the Towers Hospital in Leicester. He then worked in general medicine at hospitals in London and Sydney until joining the

Maudsley hospital The Maudsley Hospital is a British psychiatric hospital in south London. The Maudsley is the largest mental health training institution in the UK. It is part of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and works in partnership with the I ...

in 1993. In 1997 Taylor founded the national centre for information on drugs i
psychiatry
part of the UKMi network. He has been head of pharmacy since 1995 and Director of Pharmacy and Pathology at the

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, also known as SLaM, is an NHS foundation trust based in London, England, which specialises in mental health. It comprises four psychiatric hospitals (Bethlem Royal Hospital, Lambeth Hospital and t ...

since 2000. In 2008, Taylor was awarded a chair in psychopharmacology at King’s College, London and also made honorary professor at the

Institute of Psychiatry The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a centre for mental health and neuroscience research, education and training in Europe. It is dedicated to understanding, preventing and treating mental illness, neurological co ...

. Since 2010, Taylor has been head of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Clinical Academic Group within

Public works

Taylor was chairman of the UK Psychiatric Pharmacy Group (1997-1999) and the foundation president of the College of Mental Health Pharmacists, a role recognised by the award of a lifetime fellowship (FCMHP). He was a member of the government-appointed panel which brought in laws in drug driving and between 2020 and 2024 was a member of the

Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is a British statutory advisory non-departmental public body, which was established under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Mandate Its terms of reference, according to the Act, are as follows: ...

. Taylor has been a member of several

NICE Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionTherapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology which was launched in the same year. The journal has an official Impact Factor of 4.0 and is ranked 54th out of 288 psychiatry journals. Taylor is widely recognised as an expert witness on the effect of drugs on behaviour and has given testimony on over two hundred civil and criminal cases.

Research

Taylor has authored around 425 papers ( H indexbr>76
in journals such as the Lancet,

BMJ ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world' ...

British Journal of Psychiatry The ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering all branches of psychiatry with a particular emphasis on the clinical aspects of each topic. The journal is owned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and publish ...

and Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, on subjects ranging from the value of long-acting antipsychotic injections, the efficacy of psilocybin as an antidepressant and the efficacy and safety of agomelatine. Taylor’s research has helped further understanding of the use of clozapine. In 2022 he suggested a refined phenotype for genetic studies into clozapine-related agranulocytosis. He has also developed a genetic test predicting response to clozapine and the risk of agranulocytosis. This test is marketed in the UK b
Myogenes
Most recently Taylor has tackled the controversial subjects of discontinuation of antidepressants and antipsychotics. He is co-founder o
428 Pharma
a company developing the world's first antidepressant long-acting injection which is designed for use both as longterm treatment and, at different dosage levels, as a means of successfully withdrawing from antidepressant treatment. Taylor has pioneered the use of point-of-care capillary testing for clozapine

Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines

Taylor was the originator of the idea of an evidenced-based mental health prescribing guideline along with the late professor Robert Kerwin and has made a major and unique contribution by writing the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines for over 30 years. Taylor is the de facto editor of this publication and is the only author to be credited on all 15 editions. The Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines have sold over 300,000 copies in thirteen languages. Th
15th edition
was published in April 2025. He has also co-written four other books in the '' Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines'' series, includin
The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines
first published in January 2024.

Lectures

Professor Taylor has lectured throughout the world, including tours of New Zealand (2011), Hong Kong (2016), Australia (2019) and Japan (2019). He was a keynote speaker at the 2018 annual meeting of

Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) is the principal organisation representing the medical specialty of psychiatry in Australia and New Zealand and has responsibility for training, examining and awarding the qua ...

in Auckland, at the

annual meeting in London in 2019, and at The 119th Annual Meeting of th
Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology
in 2023.

Selected publications

The Use of Drugs in Psychiatry, Cookson J, Taylor D, Katona C, 2002. Gaskell.Schizophrenia in Focus. 2006. David M Taylor. Pharmaceutical Press
*Atypical antipsychotics and weightgain—a systematic review, DM Taylor, R McAskill, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 101 (6), 416–432, 2000 *Antidepressant efficacy of agomelatine: meta-analysis of published and unpublished studies. BMJ 2014 Mar 19;348:g1888. David Taylor, Anna Sparshatt, Seema Varma, Olubanke Olofinjana *Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: an open-label feasibility study, RL Carhart-Harris, M Bolstridge, J Rucker, CMJ Day, D Erritzoe, M Kaelen, The Lancet Psychiatry 3 (7), 619-627 2016. *Tapering of SSRI treatment to mitigate withdrawal symptoms. Lancet Psychiatry. 2019; 6: 538–546. Horowitz MA Taylor D
The Maudsley Guidelines for Physical Health Conditions in Psychiatry. 2020. David Taylor, Fiona Gaughran, Toby Pillinger. Wiley Blackwell.Covid has led to record levels of antidepressant use – but withdrawal can be difficult - David Taylor

References

External links

*
David Taylor
publications on

Researchgate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education' ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, David Living people 1963 births Academics from Leicester Academics of King's College London Alumni of King's College London Alumni of the University of Brighton Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh People educated at Loughborough Grammar School Scientists from Leicester