Prof Kyla Thomas is a Professor of Public Health Medicine at the University of Bristol, Clinical Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Network West of England and Network Director for the NIHR South West Central Regional Research Delivery Network. She graduated with MBBS (Distinction) from the University of the West Indies in 2003 before obtaining an MSc by Research in Clinical Epidemiology and MSc Global Health Science (Distinction) from Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship. Professor Thomas was awarded a PhD with Commendation from the University of Bristol in 2014.

Professor Thomas’ main research interests include nicotine dependence and problematic use of pharmaceutical opioids. Previously she has used pharmacoepidemiological methods to investigate the effectiveness and safety of smoking cessation medicines and e-cigarettes. Her NIHR Postdoctoral fellowship focused on developing a primary care-based intervention to prevent and reduce opioid painkiller dependence in patients with chronic non cancer pain. Her research has informed the risk benefit analysis of smoking cessation medicines by regulators such as the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and informed NICE public health guidance on smoking cessation. She was the 2019 joint winner of the Society for the Study of Addiction Fred Yates prize for researcher of the year.

Summary of Research Interests:

- substance dependence and addiction (nicotine dependence and prescription opioid dependence)

- pharmacoepidemiology, in particular psychiatric adverse drug reactions (depression, non-fatal self-harm and suicide) associated with varenicline, a smoking cessation medicine and antidepressants

- use of large primary care databases such as the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) for observational research including novel study designs for dealing with confounding by indication such as instrumental variables and case only designs

- mental health research (suicide and self-harm) and suicide prevention

- trends in suicide in the UK and internationally