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Imagine a brighter future: Development of a school-based positive imagery intervention to target anhedonia in adolescents

Start date: 1 October 2019

Award: 4 year Children and Young people PhD Scholarship funded by Mental Health Research UK            

Project: 

Depression is a major public health concern, associated with severe and long-lasting impairment (WHO, 2012). Many cases of depression start in adolescence with adolescent-onsets associated with greater illness burden than adult-onsets (Zisook et al., 2007). Whilst psychological intervention in adolescence may prevent the persistence of depression into adulthood and its debilitating consequences, these are rarely available (Health Committee, House of Commons, 2014). There is also a consistent failure to produce well-replicated efficacious psychological and pharmacological treatments in adolescent depression (Bridge, Birmaher, Iyengar, Barbe, & Brent, 2009; Gabbay et al., 2015). In adults, treatment innovation techniques have tried to focus on specific features, such as anhedonia, that are associated with severity and treatment response. The goal of the project is to develop a brief, manualised intervention for adolescent depression that targets anhedonia through harnessing the ability to imagine positive events.

Through a NIHR-funded project, we have developed a brief therapy manual and implementation protocol for adolescents using co-design methodology, which targets mental imagery in general (rather than positive future mental imagery, in particular) to attenuate depression symptoms (Pile et al., in press). A case series of 9 participants suggests that this intervention is acceptable and may have clinical utility. However, this intervention targets depression generally rather than anhedonia specifically and has only been delivered by an experienced child clinical psychologist.

Therefore, here, we aim to develop a brief, manualised intervention that targets anhedonia in adolescents with depression, which can be delivered in schools by practitioners without extensive training. This project aims to a) investigate whether the study is possible, b) whether the intervention is acceptable, and c) to estimate key parameters to design a fully-powered clinical trial.

 

Supervisors: 

Drs Jennifer Lau and Katherine Young

Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF

 

Entry requirements: 

Applicants should have a Bachelors degree with 2:1 honours. A 2:2 degree may be considered only where applicants also offer a Masters with Merit.

Award types and eligibility: Fully funded for four years, Home/EU tuitions fees (studentship not available to Overseas applicants), annual stipend and some research and travel costs.

 

How to apply: 

Applicants must complete and submit an online admissions application, via the admissions portal by midnight (23:59 GMT), Friday 12th April 2019. 

On the ‘Choosing a programme’ page, please select ‘Research degrees’ and enter the keyword Psychology Academic Research.

 

In your application, you will be asked to include:

  • Academic Transcripts – where applicable, academic transcripts must be submitted with the online admissions application
  • Details of your qualifications (you will need to attach copies)
  • Details of previous employment
  • A personal statement describing your interests and why you wish to apply for this project. Please include this as an attachment rather than using the text box.
  • Academic References – all admissions applications require two supporting references. If the applicant is relying on his/her referees to submit references directly to the College after he/she has submitted his/her admissions application, then the applicant must ensure that their chosen referees are made aware of the funding deadline.

 

In the Funding section, please tick box 5 and include the following reference:

JL-IOPPN-MHRUK-2019

 

Please note there is no need to complete the Research Proposal section in your application as the project has already been set.

You are welcome to email jennifer.lau@kcl.ac.uk (supervisor) for more information regarding the project and studentship.

If you have any queries regarding the application process, please contact Olivia Rees, Postgraduate Research Administrative Assistant. 

References must be received by the deadline for the applicant to be eligible.

Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

 

Closing date: Friday 12th April 2019

Interviews: Thursday 2nd May 2019

 

Further information: 

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/depts/psychology/research/ResearchGroupings/REDDLab/Current-projects.aspx

 

 

 

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