Rajendra 'Raj' Persaud is an English consultant psychiatrist, broadcaster and author of books about psychiatry. He is known for raising public awareness of psychiatric and mental health issues in the general media, has published five books and received numerous awards. In October 2008, Persaud resigned from his position as consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, following a three-month suspension by the General Medical Council for dishonesty in plagiarising other sources in his book From the Edge of the Couch.
Early life and academic career
Persaud is the son of Trinidad-born author Lakshmi Persaud and Professor Bishnodat Persaud. He was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and at University College London, where he read for his degrees in medicine and psychology, and wrote for the student newspaperPi. In his first year at UCL he had to re-sit the examinations in anatomy, which he attributed later to availing himself too freely of the other educational opportunities there. He told the British Medical Journal that this left him "traumatised" and he compensated by virtually taking up residence in the college library, eventually achieving at least three degrees, four diplomas and a membership examination, including:
BSc Degree in Psychology with First Class Honours, Department of Psychology, University College London
He was a psychiatric trainee at the Bethlem Royal Hospital and Maudsley Hospital in London, a research scholar and post-doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the USA in 1990 and a research worker at the Institute of Neurology at UCL. In 2000 he was awarded a UCL Fellowship, and in 2005 he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He is also a Fellow of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. In 2002 he was voted one of the top ten psychiatrists in the UK by a survey of the Institute of Psychiatry and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, published in the Independent on Sunday newspaper. He is a Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of London and has a Visiting Professor role at Gresham College for Public Understanding of Psychiatry.
Plagiarism and suspension
In 2008, Persaud was suspended from practising psychiatry for three months by the General Medical Council, having admitted being guilty of nine cases of plagiarism. He subsequently left his consultant position with the South London and Maudsley NHS trust. His book From the Edge of the Couch contained material plagiarised from four academic articles written by nine authors. Four of his articles also contained plagiarised passages from an article and book by Professor Thomas Blass, The Man Who Shocked the World. The case against him began after a complaint by the Church of Scientology.
Media career
Persaud regularly appeared on radio and TV programmes, as either interviewee or presenter and was resident psychiatrist on the well-known daytime television programmeThis Morning. In addition to writing regularly for The Daily Telegraph and The Independent, Persaud also had columns in the Times Educational Supplement, Cosmopolitan and Canary Wharf City Life magazine. He is a former presenter of the BBC Radio 4 psychology and psychiatry programme All in the Mind. He was a presenter for for BBC World Service. He is the joint editor of the Royal College of Psychiatrists . Persaud has appeared on numerous talk shows such as Richard and Judy and Good Morning with Anne and Nick, promoting psychiatric treatments for mental health issues. With the general practitionerMark Porter, he co-presented the live medical talk and phone-in TV programme Doctor, Doctor on Channel Five. Persaud's media work has earned him a mixed reception. Francis Wheen, then a Guardian columnist, claimed he is "paid a lot of money for stating the obvious". In contrast, the comedian, GP and columnist Dr. Phil Hammond applauded Persaud for his populist appeal. Hammond stated Persaud is a "good media communicator" for the psychiatric industry, albeit lacking the sophistication of the late Anthony Clare. Persaud has worked in the NGO sector. He is a patron of OCD-UK, a British charity for people affected by Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. He also works with ActionAid and recently visited Bangladesh with the charity.
