Workstream leads
Professor of Computational Psychiatry, Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, University of Oxford
Professor Hamish McAllister-Williams
Professor of Affective Disorders, Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, Newcastle University
Main location of work
The Mood Disorders workstream currently consists of eight clinical academic sites that are actively involved in clinical research in mood disorders:
- Birmingham: University of Birmingham, Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Trust and Midlands Translational Centre (MTC)
- Exeter: University of Exeter and Devon Partnership Trust
- Liverpool: University of Liverpool, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre(M-RIC)
- London: Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
- Newcastle: Newcastle University and Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and Northern Centre for Mood Disorders
- Nottingham: Nottingham NIHR BRC and University of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
- Oxford: University of Oxford and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
- Southampton: University of Southampton and Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Workstream overview
This workstream will develop the capacity and expertise of a co-ordinated network of research-focussed clinics that will act as local hubs for the delivery of clinical studies of treatment resistant depression (TRD) / difficult-to-treat depression (DTD).
Why the work is important
Within the UK, outside of cases where risk of suicide is high or social circumstances are particularly complex, there are limited clinical pathways by which patients with TRD/DTD can access specialist care. There are generally limited and, in many areas, no opportunity for patients to access mood disorder research clinics. Being involved in research is associated with receiving higher quality care and, in the long term, allows the development and refinement of better treatments for people with TRD/DTD.
Aim
The aim of the Mood Disorders workstream is to develop a co-ordinated network of research-focussed mood disorder clinics that act as local hubs for clinical studies.
Planned work packages
Work package 1: Local clinic set up
- Refining a model(s) for the delivery of research focused mood-disorder clinics
Work package 2: Network oversight, PPIEP integration and development
- The governance of the network will be the responsibility of an oversight group responsible for delivering the objectives of the Work Stream, including setting targets for the number of patients assessed and recruited to studies within each centre. There is PPIEP representation at both local clinic and network level, to help shape the organisational goals and ethos of the network itself as well as the operational reality of the individual clinics
Work package 3: Clinic development: geographical/socioeconomic reach and capacity
- Clinics will be developed with the goal of increasing patient assessments and recruitment to clinical studies with focus extending to local and underserved communities
Work package 4: Setup and management of network-wide data tools minimum datasets
- Standardised data collection from all patients assessed will be used across clinics, including demographic and clinical information, self-report questionnaires, blood samples and cognitive computational phenotyping.
Increasing research capacity
The clinics involved in the proposed network include internationally renowned clinical researchers in mood disorders. The clinics therefore represent a national resource for the development of the next generation of clinical researchers in this area.
