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The School of Pharmacy, University of London

Professor Rob Horne

Position

Head of the Department of Practice and Policy
Director, Centre for Behavioural Medicine, Department of Practice and Policy and Professor of Behavioural Medicine

Areas of Expertise

Behavioural medicine, patient beliefs about illness and treatment, adherence to medication, self-management of illness, health psychology, communication in healthcare, development of theory-based interventions to effect behaviour change in chronic illness.

Biography

After a decade in professional practice as a clinical pharmacist in London and Brighton, Professor Horne completed a part-time PhD in health psychology at King’s College London (1993-1997). Since then, he has researched self-management behaviour in chronic illness, with an emphasis on adherence to medication. Over the past decade this research has generated over 80 peer-reviewed publications and grants totalling over £3.8 million. The relevance of this research is illustrated by contributions to national and international reports and guidelines on adherence, by consultancy work for national charities, the NHS and commercial health care organisations and by a recent invitation to join the MRC College of Experts.

In 1999, Professor Horne set up and led the Centre for Health Care Research at the University of Brighton. He is the founding of the Sussex NHS R&D Support Unit. He was awarded a personal Chair in Psychology in Health Care in 2001. In September 2006 he joined The School of Pharmacy, University of London where he established the Centre for Behavioural Medicine within the Department of Practice and Policy.  

Professor Horne is a Visiting Professor at the Division of Health and Social Care (School of Medicine), Kings College London and in the Department of Psychology at University College London, and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London. He is also Associate Director of the Academic Pharmacy Unit at Hammersmith Hospitals London.

The main focus of his current research is the development of theory-based interventions to help facilitate informed choice and optimal adherence to medication and other treatments in chronic illness. Other interests include emotion and health and the placebo effect.

Selected Publications

Bowskill, R., Clatworthy, J., Rank, T., Parham, R., Horne, R. (2007) Adherence to medication in bipolar disorder: a qualitative study exploring the role of patients' beliefs about the condition and its treatment.  Bipolar Disorders, 9, 656-664

Gonzalez, J., Penedo, F., Llabre, M., Duran, R., Antoni, M., Schneiderman, N., Horne, R. (2007). Physical symptoms, beliefs about medications, negative mood, and long-term HIV medication adherence. Annals of Behavioural Medicine, 34(1), 46-55.

Horne, R., Adherence to treatment. In Ayers, S. Baum, A. McManus, C. Newman, S. Wallston, K., Weinman, J., West, R., (Eds.). (2007). Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health & Medicine 2nd edition (pp 417-421). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Horne, R., Cooper, V., Gellaitry, G., Leake Date, H., & Fisher, M. (2007). Patients' perceptions of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy in relation to treatment uptake and adherence. JAIDS, 45 (3), 334-341.

Horne, R., Price, D., Cleland, J., Costa, R., Covey, D., Gruffydd-Jones, K., et al. (2007). Can asthma control be improved by understanding the patients’ perspective? BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 7:8. 

Bowskill, R., Clatworthy, J., Parham, R., Rank, T. and Horne, R. (2007). Patients' perceptions of information received about medication prescribed for bipolar disorder: Implications for informed choice  Journal of Affective Disorders, 100 (1-3), 253-257.

Hunot, V., Horne, R., Leese, M. & Churchill, R. (2007). A cohort study of adherence to antidepressants in primary care: The influence of antidepressant concerns and treatment preferences. The Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 9 (2) , 91-99.

Cooper, A.F., Weinman, J., Hankins, M., Jackson, G., Horne, R. (2007).  Assessing patients' beliefs about cardiac rehabilitation as a basis for predicting attendance after acute myocardial infarction. Heart, 93(1), 53-8.

Hutchinson, K., Moreland, A. M. E., de C. Williams, A. C., Weinman, J., & Horne, R. (2007). Exploring beliefs and practice of opioid prescribing for persistent non-cancer pain by general practitioners. European Journal of Pain, 11(1), 93-98.

Horne, R. (2006). Compliance, adherence, and concordance: Implications for asthma treatment. Chest. 130, 65S-72S.

Piette, J.D., Heisler, M., Horne, R., & Caleb Alexander, G. (2006). A conceptually based approach to understanding chronically ill patients' responses to medication cost pressures. Social Science & Medicine. 62(4), 846-57.

Horne, R. (2006). Beliefs and adherence to treatment:  The challenge for research and practice. In P. Halligan & M. Aylard (Eds.). The Power of Belief. Oxford University Press, UK.

Clifford, S., Barber, N., Elliott, R., Hartley, E. & Horne R. (2006). Patient centred advice is effective in improving adherence to medicines.  Pharmacy World and Science. 28(3), 165-170.

Horne, R., Weinman, J., Barber, N., Elliott, R. A., & Morgan, M. (2006). Concordance, Adherence and Compliance in Medicine Taking: A conceptual map and research priorities. London: National Co-ordinating Centre for NHS Service Delivery and Organisation NCCSDO.

Petrie, K. J., Broadbent, E. A., Kley, N., Moss-Morris, R., Horne, R. & Rief, W. (2005). Worries about modernity predict symptom complaints following environmental pesticide spraying. Psychosomatic Medicine, 67, 778-782.

Calnan, M., Montaner, D. & Horne, R. (2005). How acceptable are innovative health-care technologies?  A survey of public beliefs and attitudes in England and Wales. Social Science & Medicine, 60, 1937-1948.

Gellaitry, G., Cooper, V., Dowdell, L., Davies, C., Fisher, M., Leake-Date, H. & Horne, R. (2005). Patients’ perception of information about HAART: Impact on treatment decisions.  Aids Care, 17(3), 367-376.

Horne, R., Frost, S., Weinman, J., Wright, S. M., Graupner, L. & Hankins, M. (2004). Medicine in a multicultural society. Social Science and Medicine, 59(6), 1307-13.

Horne, R. & Weinman, J. (2002). Self-regulation and self-management in asthma: Exploring the role of illness perceptions and treatment beliefs in explaining non-adherence to preventer medication. Psychology & Health, 17, 17-32.

Horne, R., Hankins, M. & Jenkins, R. (2001). The Satisfaction with Information about Medicines Scale (SIMS): a new measurement tool for audit and research. Quality in Health Care, 10, 135–140.

Horne, R., Hankins, M. & Weinman, J. (1999). The Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire: the development and evaluation of a new method for assessing the cognitive representation of medication. Psychology and Health, 14, 1-24.

[Full publications list...]