Dr Holan Liang

Assistant Research Professor and Consultant Paediatric Neuropsychiatrist

Holan Liang is an assistant research professor and Consultant Paediatric Neuropsychiatrist with honorary Consultant contracts at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Northeast London Foundation NHS Trust (NELFT). She is also the Department of Health and Social Care GIRFT Children and Young People’s Mental Health Neurodevelopmental Lead working nationally with NHS teams to improve service delivery.  

She has been Honorary Associate Professor at UCL GOS Institute of Child Health and Clinical Research Fellow at The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. She was formerly psychiatry lead of the national specialist tic service at Great Ormond Street Hospital and has over 15 years’ consultant experience in specialist child and adolescent psychiatry. She was Workforce Lead on the Royal College of Psychiatrists Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Faculty Executive Committee between 2019-2023. 

Her interest is in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism, ADHD, Tourette’s syndrome and intellectual disability, their overlap and their co-occurrence with physical health conditions. She is involved in clinical research including clinical trials (SATURN Study, STAR-AIMS, ATTENS), national and international genetics studies (TS2000, TicGENETICS) and international collaborations (Functional Tic Like Behaviours European Collaborative Group).  

She has taught undergraduate and postgraduates in neurodevelopmental disorders for over 15 years at King’s College London and University College London and peer reviews proposals and papers for NIHR and the BMJ. She has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph and RED Magazine. Her current research relates to autism presentations in the paediatric hospital setting. 

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6650-9449 

Selected publications: 

Idelji-Tehrani S, Parikh N, Catanzano M, Archer I, Shoaib M, Liang H. Ethnicity and equity of access to a tier 4 national tic service. BJPsych Bull. 2025 Oct 24:1-6. doi: 10.1192/bjb.2025.10166. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41133346. 

Pringsheim T, Ganos C, Nilles C, Cavanna AE, Gilbert DL, Greenberg E, Hartmann A, Hedderly T, Heyman I, Liang H, Malaty I, Malik O, Debes NM, Vahl KM, Munchau A, Murphy T, Nagy P, Owen T, Rizzo R, Skov L, Stern J, Szejko N, Worbe Y, Martino D. European Society for the Study of Tourette Syndrome 2022 criteria for clinical diagnosis of functional tic-like behaviours: International consensus from experts in tic disorders. Eur J Neurol. 2023 Apr;30(4):902-910. doi: 10.1111/ene.15672. Epub 2023 Jan 13. PMID: 36587367. 

Brandi Gomes Godoy P, McWilliams L, Rodrigues da Silveira L, de Cesaro Revers Biasão M, Speggiorin Pereira Alarcão F, Seda L, Generoso Campoli R, Liang H, Divan G, Leadbitter K, Green J, Shephard E. Acceptability and feasibility of a parent-mediated social-communication therapy for young autistic children in Brazil: A qualitative implementation study of Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy. Autism. 2024 Jan;28(1):123-137. doi: 10.1177/13623613221144501. Epub 2023 Jan 1. PMID: 36588298. 

A double-blind, randomised, sham-controlled trial testing the efficacy of fMRI neurofeedback on clinical and cognitive measures in children with ADHD. Sheut-Ling Lam, Marion Criaud, Steve Lukito, Samuel Westwood, Deborah Agbedjro, Olivia Kowalczyk, Sarah Curran, Nadia Barret, Chris Abbott, Holan Liang, Emily Simonoff, Gareth J Barker, Vincent Giampietro, Katya Rubia. American Journal of Psychiatry (2022) Dec 1;179(12):947-958. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.21100999. 

White matter disruptions related to inattention and autism spectrum symptoms in tuberous sclerosis complex. Lucy D. Vanes, Charlotte Tye, Jacques-Donald Tournier, Anna J.E. Combes, Elizabeth Shephard, Holan Liang, Gareth J. Barker, Chiara Nosarti, The TS2000 Study Team and Patrick Bolton, Neuroimage: Clinical, August 2022 2022;36:103163. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103163 

Perinatal Adversities in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex: Determinants and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes. Alexa X. D. Zhang, Holan Liang, Fiona S. McEwen, Charlotte Tye, Emma Woodhouse, Lisa Underwood, Elizabeth Shephard, Fintan Sheerin, Tuberous Sclerosis 2000 Study Group, Patrick F Bolton. Developmental Medicine Child Neurology 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.15224 

Evaluation of a mental health drop-in centre offering brief transdiagnostic psychological assessment and treatment for children and adolescents with long-term physical conditions and their families: a single-arm, open, non-randomised trial (2020). Catanzano, M., Bennett, SD., Kerry, E., Liang, H., Heyman, I., Coughtrey, AE. Fifield, K., Taylor, C., Dalgleish, T., Xu, L., Shafran, R. Evidence Based Medicine. 2021 Feb;24(1):25-32. doi: 10.1136/ebmental-2020-300197. 

Guidance for identification and treatment of individuals with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder based upon expert consensus. Young, S., Hollingdale J., Absoud, M., Bolton, P., Branney, P., Colley, A., Craze, E., Dave, M., Deeley, Q., Farrag, E., Gudjonsson, G., Hill, P., Liang, H., Murphy, C., Mackintosh, P., Murin, M., O’Regan, F., Ougrin, D., Rios, P., Stover, N., Taylor, E. & Woodhouse, E. (2020) BMC Medicine 18, 146. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01585-y 

Simonoff, E., Taylor, E., Baird, G., Bernard, S., Chadwick, O., Liang, H., Riemer, K., Sharma Pandey, S., Sharma, K., Wood, N., Kelly, J., Golaszewski, A., Kennedy, J., Rodney, L., West, N., Walwyn, R., Jichi, F. (2013) Randomized controlled double-blind trial of optimal dose methylphenidate in children and adolescents with severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and intellectual disability. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 54 (5): 527-535. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02569.x