I am interested in understanding what treatments work best at reducing the future risk of suicide attempts in various clinical populations. I have run large-scale intervention trials in populations of hospital-treated self-poisoning patients and Borderline Personality Disorder patients, as well as completing systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and meta-regressions of intervention trials, and developing Clinical Practice Guidelines.
I am also interested in treatment-resistant depression. I would like to identify effective treatments for this important clinical population; interventions that will bring about remission from the depressive illness and reduce the frequency of the commonly associated suicidal behaviours. I have recently completed a systematic review and meta-analysis of single low-dose ketamine trials for the treatment of depression; and I am member of a consortium funded to run a multicentre trial using low dose intranasal ketamine, as an intervention for treatment-resistant depression and associated suicidal ideation.
I am interested in reducing distress, depression and pain in ambulatory oncology patients attending outpatient oncology clinics. In collaboration with colleagues at the Calvary Mater Newcastle, we have developed a computerised system for screening and notifying treating clinicians of these problems. Over four years of implementation this process of screening and notification was associated with a sustained decrease in pain and distress.
I have had many occurrences over my years as a clinician where I realised that the available literature did not adequately identify how best to treat a certain patient or group of patients. Most of the drive to do research for me was to produce better answers to the question, "what is the best treatment for this patient?"
Professor Carter is the Senior Staff Specialist Psychiatrist and Acting Director of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry, Calvary Mater Newcastle, and Conjoint Professor in Psychiatry in the Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle. He is a clinician, teacher and researcher.
His areas of clinical and research interest include; deliberate self poisoning, suicide prevention, epidemiology of suicidal behaviours, attitudes to euthanasia, delirium, treatment -resistant depression, post-stroke depression, organ donation and psycho-oncology.
He is member of: the RANZCP (Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists), the ASPR (Australasian Society of Psychiatric Research), the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Strategic Planning Group (University of Washington), the AAS (American Academy of Suicidology), the IASR (International Association of Suicide Researchers) and the Psycho-Oncology Cooperative Research Group (PoCoG), Australia.
