Overview
Our mood disorder research focuses on practical solutions.
The Mood Disorders workstream focuses on improving care and treatment for patients with long term depression LTD). To advance this, we are developing a digital platform designed for stratified recruitment and standardized outcomes in LTD. By creating trial-ready cohorts, we aim to establish a sustained pipeline for novel clinical trials, accelerating translational research outcomes for LTD across the UK
Aims & Objectives
We have incorporated patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) feedback into the pre-consent systems for studies focused on depression therapeutics.
The main objectives of this workstream are:
- Develop a regional framework for a digital register that supports stratified recruitment for LTD studies in both primary and secondary care.
- Identify participants with LTD for new trials and experimental medicine studies, including those led or co-led by industry, and funded through competitive grants.
- Use insights from these trials to inform stratified or adaptive treatment trials, while evaluating their effectiveness in real-world diverse populations. This work will attract further industry partnerships and external funding.
Aims & Objectives
We have incorporated patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) feedback into the pre-consent systems for studies focused on depression therapeutics.
The main objectives of this workstream are:
- Develop a regional framework for a digital register that supports stratified recruitment for LTD studies in both primary and secondary care.
- Identify participants with LTD for new trials and experimental medicine studies, including those led or co-led by industry, and funded through competitive grants.
- Use insights from these trials to inform stratified or adaptive treatment trials, while evaluating their effectiveness in real-world diverse populations. This work will attract further industry partnerships and external funding.
Key Achievements to Date
- We have incorporated patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) feedback into the pre-consent systems for studies focused on depression therapeutics.
- We are developing a dedicated research clinic capable of hosting experimental medicine studies in LTD.
- We have completed a series of stakeholder meetings, engaging healthcare professionals, service users, and academics to shape the digital platform for LTD.
- An algorithm to identify people with LTD from the RIO system has been developed.
- Strong connections with primary care have been established to aid recruitment and study execution.
- We have created harmonized processes for a standardized LTD dataset and common outcome measures.
- Our work has led to the publication of a peer-reviewed manuscript on the risk factors for chronic depression in young people in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Science (doi: 10.1017/S2045796024000350).
Next Steps
- Build the database registry infrastructure.
- Finalize regulatory approvals, including ethics and information governance (IG) processes.
- Map new recruitment pathways for identifying participants.
- Recruit the first participant via these new pathways.
- Secure funding for the first industry-led trial.