{{About||the installation artist|Liz Miller (artist)}} {{BLP sources|date=October 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Elizabeth Sinclair Miller |honorific_suffix = AKC, MBBS, FRCS(Ed), MRCPG, BA, Dip Occ Med, MSc |office = Trustee, Stand to Reason |term_start = 2007 |term_end = |office2 = Co-Founder and Secretary, Doctors Support Network |term_start2 = 1996 |term_end2 = 2006 |birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1957|02|27}} |birth_place = Bedford, England |alma_mater = King's College London |profession = Physician, surgeon, campaigner, writer |website = http://www.drlizmiller.co.uk |footnotes = }}
'''Elizabeth Sinclair Miller''' (born 2 February 1957{{citation needed|date=October 2025}}) is a British physician, surgeon, campaigner and writer noted for her outspoken stance on mental health, and bipolar disorder (manic depression) in particular. Although she has a long history of television and radio appearances, she came to public prominence in Stephen Fry's Emmy Award-winning documentary ''The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive'' in 2006. In 2008 she was voted Mind Champion of the Year by public poll.
==Biography== The daughter of a physician and theatre nurse, Miller is the third generation of her family to become a physician. A difficult child by her own admission,<ref>Between Ourselves, BBC Radio 4, 2005</ref> she managed to persuade her parents to send her to Cheltenham Ladies' College at the age of eleven. From there she went to the University of London, graduating from King's College in 1979. After marriage to Richard Armstrong in 1995 she assumed his surname until separation in 1999. She suffered from bipolar disorder and has been completely well and off medication for twenty five years. She has campaigned on behalf of the mentally ill and is now campaigning for reform of healthcare and the NHS, without further privatisation, whilst maintaining its core values.
==Career== She began surgical training in 1982 and her Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons was conferred in 1983, whereupon she began training as a neurosurgeon. That same year, she developed several melanomas, and believes she might not have received treatment in time had she not been a surgeon. Over the course of the next few years she published several academic papers, and in 1989 was Cheyne Medal runner-up for her paper "The Hypothalamic Control of sodium metabolism and the Syndrome of Inappropriate Natriuresis". The stress of her career, being the only female neurosurgeon in the UK at the time<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/03/2008_41_tue.shtml|title = BBC - Radio 4 Woman's Hour -Recovery}}</ref> caused her to have a hypomanic episode while practising in Edinburgh that same year. She was sectioned for six months, after which she suffered from depression.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2008/jun/11/mental.health|title = Interview: Dr Liz Miller on mental health|website = TheGuardian.com|date = 10 June 2008}}</ref> She said that this experience gave her the lasting insight that people with severe mental illness are best considered 'damaged; not ill'. "If I have learnt one thing, it is that the brain heals if you give it what it needs to heal."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090612212334/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/5454798/My-illness-will-not-come-back-because-now-I-know-what-the-triggers-are.html The Daily Telegraph]</ref>
In 1990, she returned to work in Bedford General Hospital, transferring to Guy's Hospital, London in 1991 to work in Accident and Emergency. In 1992, she had a second mental breakdown and was admitted to the Maudsley Hospital, part of King's College. After a year working as a medical adviser in the software industry she took an Art Foundation Diploma at the Byam Shaw School of Art.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}}
In 1994, she was made a Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners and had her final breakdown shortly afterwards.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}} She was admitted to the Bethlem Health Care workers Unit at the Royal Bethlem Hospital, Shirley, London. It was here that she met other physicians who were later to form the Doctors Support Network.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}} In 1996, she volunteered with the Bipolar Organisation, formally known as Manic Depression Fellowship, and formed the Doctors Support Network with Dr Soames Michelson. She continued her academic career on a part-time basis, gaining a BA in Psychology from the Open University in 2001 and an MSc in Organisational Psychology from Birkbeck College, University of London. She was awarded a Diploma in Occupational Health in 2002 whilst treating London Fire Brigade personnel for mental health issues. It was in this latter post that she began her work on Mood Mapping.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}}
==''Mood Mapping''== Miller's first book, Mood Mapping, was published in the autumn of 2009. It is a practical book, guiding the reader to emotional health and happiness.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20091002190959/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthadvice/lesleygarnerlifeclass/6239838/How-can-I-help-my-32-year-old-son-out-of-his-depression.html The Daily Telegraph]</ref>
==Awards== *1989, Cheyne Medal runner up *2005, Nominee, Mental Health Survivor Award *2008, Mind Champion of the Year
==Major publications== *{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=ES |last2=Neoptolemos |first2=JP |last3=Aitkenhead |first3=AR |last4=Fossard |first4=DP |title=Management of severe head injuries in a non-neurosurgical trauma centre |journal=Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh |date=April 1985 |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=82–7 |pmid=4020726 }} *{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Crockard |first2=Alan H. |title=Transoral Transclival Removal of Anteriorly Placed Meningiomas at the Foramen Magnum |journal=Neurosurgery |date=June 1987 |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=966–968 |doi=10.1227/00006123-198706000-00026 |pmid=3614579 }} *Miller E.S., Collins I., Seckl J.R. Hyponatraemia following subarachnoid hemorrhage: Sodium loss or fluid gain? Journal of Clinical Sciences (abstract) 1987. *Miller E.S., Dias P. Uttley D. Subdural empyema; A review of 24 cases. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. 1987;50:1415–1418. *Miller E.S., Dias P. Uttley D. A review of one hundred cases of intracranial suppuration managed since the introduction of computerised tomography. British Journal of Neurosurgery 1988;3:105–108 *{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=E |last2=Montague |first2=A |last3=Crone |first3=P |last4=Kirby |first4=N |title=Quality assurance in Guy's Hospital accident and emergency department. |journal=Health Trends |date=1992 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=38–40 |pmid=10122495 }} *{{cite journal |last1=Armstrong |first1=E. |title=Safety of patients in drug trials |journal=BMJ |date=19 September 1998 |volume=317 |issue=7161 |pages=818 |doi=10.1136/bmj.317.7161.818b |pmid=9740580 |pmc=1113915 }} *Miller Lizzie Career focus Helping troubled doctors BMJ 2002;324:148 *{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=L. |title=Doctors, their mental health and capacity for work |journal=Occupational Medicine |date=1 January 2009 |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=53–55 |doi=10.1093/occmed/kqn111 |pmid=18796700 |doi-access=free }}
==Academic qualifications== {{BLP unreferenced section|date=October 2025}} 1977, AKC<br /> 1979, MBBS King's College, University of London<br /> 1983, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCS(Ed))<br /> 1993, Art Foundation Diploma, Byam Shaw School of Art<br /> 1994, Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners (MRCPG)<br /> 2001, BA, Psychology, Open University<br /> 2002, Diploma of Occupational Medicine<br /> 2005, MSc, Organisational Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London 2006, Graduate Member of the British Psychology Society (GMBPsS)
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Liz}} Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of King's College London Category:Associates of King's College London Category:People from Bedford Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Category:Alumni of the Open University Category:Alumni of the Byam Shaw School of Art Category:People with bipolar disorder Category:British general practitioners Category:English neurosurgeons Category:20th-century British women medical doctors Category:20th-century British surgeons