Rate My Professor Charlie Mentzel

Dr Charlotte (Charlie) Mentzel is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago. A vocationally trained psychiatrist, she earned her MD from Universiteit Utrecht and PhD from Maastricht University, with her doctoral thesis examining the course, recognition, and treatment of movement disorders in severe mental illness. In her clinical role, she works as an inpatient psychiatrist at 0.5 full-time equivalent. Mentzel convenes the psychological medicine module for sixth-year medical students, promoting service-user involvement in education and fostering professionalism among trainees. She contributes to curriculum development as a member of the curriculum map subcommittee.

Mentzel conducts practical research to enhance psychiatric practice, with a focus on movement disorders and functional movement disorders, alongside investigations into inpatient ward complaints, service user-led teaching, and analyses of large datasets. She serves as Principal Investigator for the Ketamine-assisted mindfulness trial targeting alcohol use disorder and as study coordinator for the Ketamine and behavioural activation therapy trial for treatment-resistant depression in Dunedin. Her funded projects include extending the World of Difference research to Dunedin through a James Hume Bequest grant and developing the FRANCS framework for concussion management in secondary schools, supported by New Zealand Lottery Health Grants. Key publications encompass van Oeveren, M., Glue, P., & Mentzel, C. (2025). Drug driving, sedation, reaction time and blood levels: A prescriber's approach to the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Act 2022. New Zealand Medical Journal, 138(1613), 87-95; Johari, N., Mentzel, C., & Barak, Y. (2025). Successful ageing: Perception of older adults in Otago, New Zealand. Medical Research Archives, 13(2); Leung, L., Mentzel, C. L., Hobbs, L., & Patterson, T. (2025). Characteristics of harmful sexual behaviour in autistic adolescent males as compared to controls. Psychiatry, Psychology & Law, 32(6), 918-930; Mentzel, C. et al. (2024). Protocol for a randomised controlled trial of ketamine versus placebo for alcohol use disorder. BMJ Open, 14(5); and Mentzel, C. et al. (2023). Prescription of sodium valproate to women of childbearing potential. Australasian Psychiatry, 31(6). She has delivered presentations at the RANZCP New Zealand Conference (2025) on ethical principles under the new Mental Health Act and at RANZCOG on trauma in the delivery room (2025).