Research

Stuart has an extensive research portfolio as an investigator and supervisor.

Research Interests

  • Digital and web-based psychological interventions

  • Alcohol misuse prevention and treatment

  • Online behaviour change and engagement

  • Suicide risk assessment and service responses

  • Mental health service design and outcomes

  • Post-COVID rehabilitation and long-COVID support

  • Religion and Psychology

Selected Research Grants

  • Internet-based interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm (Principal Investigator)

  • DYD-RCT: Large-scale online RCT for reducing hazardous drinking (MRC-funded)

  • Living With COVID-19 Recovery: NIHR-funded digital rehabilitation programme (Mental Health Lead)

“I have known Stuart in his capacity as an associate member of the UCL eHealth Unit for over 20 years and worked with him on numerous publicly funded grants over that time. He has always proved himself to be an excellent and collegiate member of the team, bringing his considerable skills and expertise as a clinical psychologist and knowledge of clinical practice to support and improve the lives of patients and the public.”

PROFESSOR FIONA STEVENSON,

HEAD UCL EHEALTH UNIT,

DIRECTOR INSTITUTE FOR EPIDEMIOLOGY AND HEALTH CARE

Stuart Linke

Academic Roles

  • Associate Research Fellow, eHealth Unit, University College London (2006–present)

  • Honorary Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, UCL (1998–2006)

  • Occasional peer reviewer for J Med Internet Research, Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, Alcohol and Alcoholism and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

ORCID ID 0000-0003-2515-3946

E-Health

The aim of the eHealth Unit is to help people to get better through digital health promotion and disease management programmes. We research how to deliver non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as physiotherapy, psychological therapies and disease management, through online programmes and apps.

Our research is led by patient needs, which enables us to find feasible, practical solutions to address health problems. We have strong multidisciplinary expertise across a wide range of research methods.

Stuart was one of the early researchers in the eHealth Unit working closely with Professors Paul Wallace, Elizabeh Murray, Fiona Stevenson and Fiona Hamilton. He led much of the work on “Down Your Drink” which became incorporated into the NHSE “Help Diabetes” programme . He was the mental health lead for “Living With Covid Recovery”,

UCL Partners supported the innovative digital programme Living With Covid Recovery, developed by academics and clinicians in its member organisations, to treat the long-lasting symptoms of COVID-19 infection.

Long-covid research

Stuart was 1 of 20 clinicians and researchers involved in this project. It targets primary symptoms that ‘long-haulers’ report experiencing for many weeks and even months after the peak of their infection – such as fatigue, anxiety and breathing problems. It combines evidence-based methods from physiotherapists, psychologists, dieticians and respiratory physicians to create bespoke treatment plans for each patient.

When interviewed about the programme Stuart said:

“The mental health component of the digital tool is just as important as the physical, and we are finding that the symptoms are often interrelated – for instance, if you’re feeling anxious, you may be less likely to eat well, which may lead to further tiredness, which further impacts your mood and so on. A core feature of the recovery tool is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) delivered by psychologists to help with anxiety.”