Current research studies

We want to explore if matching certain subgroups of people with depression to a particular therapy would help patients. Two therapies for depression routinely offered in talking therapy sites are cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and person-centred experiential therapy (PCE), also known as counselling for depression. Both therapies are equally effective.

The app will enable therapists in the intervention group to make a personalised treatment recommendation, and as part of shared decision-making. Those in the control group will simply use the app as a data collection tool.

Recruitment end date, 1 August 2026.

This can be followed by high intensity treatments (up to 20 weeks) for patients who need ongoing help. Recent studies suggest that using stratified care could be a good way to offer therapies. StratCare is a model that involves recommending either low or high intensity treatments. Each patient’s unique problems and life circumstances guide the decision.

During assessment we are asking all patients if they want to take part in the research. The trial investigates different ways to offer available treatments to new patients. The trial compares the stratified care approach to the usual stepped care approach.

StratCare is a computer programme that works by recommending either low or high intensity treatments to the therapist assessing you. The decision is guided by each patient’s unique problems and life circumstances. Stepped care is the model that talking therapies normally use.

Recruitment end date, 31 May 2025.

Patients who agree to participate will be offered an online group therapy called “UpLift Your Life”, which is based on CBT. This group therapy helps patients to learn and practise several coping skills. Participants will attend group therapy sessions once per week through a video call.

Participants will also have access to a website with lots of helpful information about coping skills to recover from mental health problems. The group therapy will be delivered by experienced and qualified therapists working in the NHS.

The therapists involved in this study will be delivering five different versions of this group therapy. All five versions cover the same coping skills, but in a different order. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the 5 versions of the group therapy.

Recruitment end date, 30 August 2025.

The purpose of this study is to help us understand the medical effects of dangerous drinking so that we can offer better advice and help to people. Participants will be asked for some baseline data about their drinking and to consent for their medical record to be accessed and data to be recorded in a research database (for example medical problems and any medications).

RDaSH is a data collection centre for the research database which is maintained by researchers at Leeds Teaching Hospitals.

Planned recruitment end date, 1 April 2025.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental health condition characterised by emotional instability, impaired interpersonal functioning and increased risk of self-harm and suicide. Carers of people with BPD face substantial challenges. Currently, there is no clear evidence on how to support them.

Family connections is a 12-week, group based intervention that enables carers to learn how to cope with difficult emotions and how to effectively support their loved ones with BPD. Prior observational research suggests that FC may help these carers.

However, we do not know whether family connections constitutes an effective intervention for carers, nor whether there are additional beneficial effects on patients with BPD, this trial will seek to evidence the potential benefits of family connections.

Planned recruitment end date, 31 January 2025.

In this project, we aim to understand the brain mechanisms of apathy. Using computer-based tests, we will process participants’ answers and deduce how the brain processes information. We aim to use these tests in a group of patients suffering with schizophrenia, with a special interest in negative symptoms.

Planned recruitment end date, 3 February 2025.

CognoSpeak is a computerised doctor, for example, a human looking image on a computer screen that will ask you questions regarding your health. CognoSpeak will not be able to respond to your answers. The answers will be analysed by a computer program to look for changes in speech patterns due to memory problems or mood.

CognoSpeak will ask healthy volunteers the same questions as those with either memory complaints, suspected movement disorders or stroke, so that we can compare answers between different groups of participants with cognitive complaints. This study looks at how people with cognitive or memory problems describe their difficulties in daily life.

We are also interested to see how speech patterns may change over time. At present it often takes a long time before memory problems are diagnosed accurately. We hope that in the future we can use CognoSpeak, so no one misses out on an early assessment and has access to support or treatment.

Recruitment end date, 31 January 2025.

This project seeks to explore BA for young people beyond specialist clinical services. We have developed a standardised community-based behavioural activation training programme (ComBAT) for use within community-based organisations for young people experiencing mild to moderate depression. Building on our feasibility work, the current project will evaluate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and acceptability of our BA in comparison to usual care in a parallel two groups randomised controlled trial. In RDaSH this study is delivered by the School Nursing team.

Recruitment end date, 30 November 2024.

In this research, an investigational drug called COMP360 is being tested for the treatment of treatment resistant depression (TRD) administered with psychological support from a trained study therapist. COMP360 is a man-made form of the naturally occurring chemical compound, psilocybin.

Psilocybin is found in some species of mushrooms, known as “magic mushrooms”. COMP360 is synthetically produced (man-made) in a laboratory and not taken from the mushroom itself. Research suggests that psilocybin may help in treating depression.

Psilocybin (and therefore COMP360) works on the serotonin system in the brain which is linked to several important functions in our body, including regulation of mood, sleep, and thinking processes. Psilocybin is a psychedelic and controlled drug, and its use outside approved research is prohibited by law. This study has received all required approvals, and it is legal for participants to be given psilocybin in the form of COMP360 in this study.

Recruitment end date, 31 May 2025.

The data from this study will help to outline the incidence, severity and recurrence of diabetic foot ulcers. While there are previous studies investigating the characteristics of the DFU wounds themselves as well as the quality of life of patients, the environmental factors consideration is missing. This survey will help to understand what role various environmental factors have on the incidence, severity and recurrence of DFUs such as:

• smoking
• drinking
• nutritional supplementation
• therapy compliance
• exercise

Results from this study will help healthcare professionals as well as patients to better understand various factors involved in DFU prevalence. Moreover, this survey could help to appreciate whether a more holistic strategy should be followed when assessing DFU risk and deciding on therapy.

Recruitment end date, 15 February 2025.

The GLAD study is a project set up to explore risk factors in individuals who have experienced depression or anxiety, including those with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, OCD, or related disorders, at any time in their lives.

It aims to better understand depression and anxiety in order to find and develop more effective treatments. Taking part involves providing a saliva sample, completing questionnaires online and allowing access to medical records. The study is open to people with a mental health diagnosis and healthy volunteers.

Recruitment end date, 1 September 2028.

The programme is based on acceptance and commitment therapy, which is a new form of psychological therapy that helps people to learn how to live with difficult or distressing thoughts and feelings, while still trying to do things that really matter to them or being the type of person, they want to be.

This therapy has been found to be helpful for improving wellbeing in people experiencing distressing mental or physical health problems.

This therapy may be particularly suited to family carers due to its focus on helping people learn how to best live their lives, whilst coping with the difficulties they may be experiencing that are out of their control such as caring responsibilities.

Recruitment end date, 30 June 2025.

Previous research has looked at new roles in isolation to decide if they improve care, but this often ignores how the whole team is affected by the changes. New roles mean existing roles also change, for example, staff may give up some tasks or spend time supervising others to do them. Service users may get care from larger teams, including new staff with unfamiliar job titles, which may affect continuity of care.

Our aim is to discover how new roles can be introduced successfully. As part of this project, we will visit four mental health trusts to look at what happens in practice when different types of new role are introduced. We will identify clinical teams that have recently introduced new roles and spend time in those teams, observing meetings and other activities.

We will also invite staff, service users and carers to take part in interviews about their experiences of new roles. We want to find out what has worked well and where there have been difficulties. We will use what we find out to create practical guidance for people managing and planning new roles in mental health trusts.

Recruitment end date, 31 May 2025.

Participants are patients who were in contact with mental health services in the time prior to death. There is a sub-study with a clinician’s bereavement questionnaire.

Recruitment end date, 31 March 2027.

However, the crying can distress parents and lead to maternal depression, poor parent-child relationships, problems with child development and infant abuse in extreme cases. By developing NHS services which support parents whose babies cry excessively, we hope to improve the parents’ wellbeing and coping, infant outcomes, and how NHS money is spent.

This cluster randomised controlled trial will show whether parent or carers who have access to this package become less depressed and cope better with their baby’s crying compared to parent or carers who receive routine NHS support.

Recruitment end date, 31 December 2025.

900 people with psychosis will complete self-report questionnaires (approximately 30 to 45 minutes). After this, a subgroup of 100 participants will be asked to repeat some of the measures a week later to test if the appraisals measure is consistent. By developing a new measure and our knowledge of causal mechanisms of visions, it will be the next important steps to developing better treatments for these.

Recruitment end date, 30 November 2024.

Their thoughts and feelings on matters like their care, living arrangements, and what treatments they want to receive may change, especially when the dementia gets worse. As time goes on, partners and carers may take over making decisions for the person with dementia, instead of helping them make their own choices.

We want to look at how people living with dementia are helped to make decisions about their health through the course of their dementia journey. We want to find out the best ways to help people with dementia make their own decisions.

Follow-up end date, 30 November 2026.

The DIAMONDS intervention is a 6-month programme that consists of daily self-management tasks (such as goal setting and action planning) and 1 to 1 meetings with a trained facilitator. In this study, which is phase 4 of the DIAMONDS programme, we will compare two groups of participants to test whether our intervention works. One group will receive the DIAMONDS intervention, the other will not.

It will be decided randomly which participant will be in which group. We will take blood samples at the beginning of the study and after 6 and 12 months to see if the intervention helps people look after their diabetes.

Follow-up end date, 30 September 2025

This treatment is available in prisons, probation and in health settings, and research shows this can be helpful in stopping men from reoffending. Some men who commit sex offences have learning disabilities or autism. However, these men often do not get any treatment. This project will offer men with learning disabilities and autism the same kind of treatment that non-disabled men get.

The treatment has been specifically adapted for them and is called SOTSEC-ID. We will look at whether this is helpful for the men, in the way they feel and the way they behave.

Follow-up end date, 31 March 2026.

Being physically active reduces your risk of developing illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and can even improve your mood. This study aims to explore whether the Snacktivity approach helps people to become more active and is aimed at everyone regardless of their age, fitness, ability or disability.

Snacktivity (trademarked) focuses on encouraging people to do short “snacks” of physical activity throughout the day. An “activity snack” lasts between 2 and 5 minutes and can easily be fitted into daily life for example, using the stairs instead of a lift, taking an extra short walk and leg raises while watching the television.

Recruitment end date, 31 August 2025.

This centre is a collection of researchers funded for 5 years by the Economic and Social Research Council who are examining how the police work with a variety of vulnerable groups of people including those with mental health concerns. Routine police work often involves supporting people who might be experiencing mental health concerns. They may be victims, perpetrators, or witnesses.

People with lived experience and their carers have mixed experiences of encountering the police in relation to their mental health. We have limited knowledge about how the police can best help people with mental health problems therefore this project aims to address this knowledge gap. This study will invite people with lived experience, service users, carers and NHS staff, to take part in an interview in person or online.

Recruitment end date, 28 February 2025.

Genes and health is a medical research study set up to help fight against these and other major diseases. It is funded by the Wellcome Trust, the UK’s foremost medical charity. By involving large numbers of local Bangladeshi and Pakistani people the study hopes to find new ways of improving the health of Bangladeshi and Pakistani people. Volunteers will be asked to donate a small saliva sample and share access to their medical records.

They will be asked for consent to be contacted again, and some may be invited to take part in future research. Genes and health is supporting studies looking at how genes influence disease. The resource will support many other medical research studies, a full list of all supported studies (opens in a new window).

Recruitment end date, 21 December 2028.

Neurodevelopmental disorder refers to conditions that begin to affect people in their childhood and can include conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit disorder (ADHD) or Tourette syndrome.

We want to explore the decisions and experiences of ethnic minority groups accessing services for neurodevelopmental or mental health services, as well as their understanding of what neurodevelopmental disorders are. We hope that our findings will help us to improve the way in which health and social care is delivered in the future.

Recruitment end date, 1 August 2025.

The purpose of the study is to hear both mothers’ and their loved ones’ stories about any positive or negative impacts the experience of psychosis after having a baby has had on the family.

The study’s design is joint semi-structured interviews with a narrative approach. The researcher will ask the participants to talk about their experience of postpartum psychosis through storytelling. The researcher will be looking at how the couples tell their stories of postpartum psychosis together.

Recruitment end date, 1 May 2025.

Additionally, the study aims to identify how these factors namely practitioners’ confidence and competence may then affect or translate into better clinical outcomes for children, young people and their families. Low intensity practitioners who have undergone training at Northumbria University as part of a ‘recruit to train’ practitioner course are eligible to participate in the study.

Practitioners will be invited to complete training questionnaires, pre and post clinical skills and confidence questionnaires as well as participating in supportive in-service clinical supervision where they will discuss their clinical practice, skills and competencies.

Parents or carers who are receiving this clinical intervention delivered by those practitioners will be invited to participate in the study by giving consent for practitioners to collect routine clinical outcome data and end of service questionnaires to enable the researcher to evaluate if receiving the intervention may translate into better clinical outcomes for children young people and their families.

Recruitment end date, 30 September 2026.