ATHLOS: Ageing Trajectories of Health: Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies

This EU-funded project aims to achieve a better understanding of ageing by identifying patterns of healthy ageing trajectories, the determinants of those patterns, the critical points in time when changes in trajectories are produced, and to propose timely clinical and public health interventions to optimise healthy.

BOPPP: Beta-blockers or placebo for primary prophylaxis of oesophageal varices

BOPPP is a UK multicentre trial of beta blockers to prevent sudden bleeding from the oesophagus in patients with Liver disease (cirrhosis), funded by NHS NIHR. Patients with cirrhosis often develop enlarged veins in their oesophagus which can burst with distressing and possibly fatal consequences. BOPPP will recruit patients with moderately enlarged veins and test whether prescription of a beta blocker, Carvedilol, can reduce the incidence of bleeding. The trial will follow patients over five years. KHE will undertake the economic analysis which includes a lifetime simulation model.

DePEC: Global Health Research Group on Dementia Prevention and Enhanced Care

Findings from high-income countries show that targeting risk factors for heart/stroke disease can reduce dementia risk. We do not know whether this also applies for LMICs or whether their healthcare systems are equipped to deliver such preventative care. Post-diagnostic dementia care, defined as holistic, integrated continuing care in the context of declining function and increasing family carer needs, if present, varies considerably. Worryingly the 2016 World Alzheimer Report found the current specialist-led model of dementia care unaffordable and unsustainable, especially for LMICs. It urged more efficient 'taskshifted/task-shared' dementia care i.e. increased, and more appropriate use, of GP and community services as in other chronic illness care. The project’s goal is to reduce the personal and societal burden of dementia by developing approaches to reduce future numbers getting dementia and develop more efficient post-diagnostic care. The project will bring together: dementia experts in public health/primary care (Newcastle), global epidemiological 10/66 dementia research group from King's College London (KCL), with a strong existing LMICs network and new LMICs partners, one from each economic category (upper LMIC-Malaysia, LMIC-India and least developed Tanzania) to create a global, multi-disciplinary translational research group.

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ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health

Centre for Society and Mental Health will investigate how rapid changes in modern society impact on our mental health. Based at King’s College London, the new Centre will develop policies and practices for creating mentally healthy environments. The Centre will address questions in three key areas where there is the greatest need: Young people - what impact have recent social and economic changes, from the rise of social media to the growth of precarious employment, had on the mental health of young people? Marginalised communities - what impact have recent social and economic changes, such as prolonged austerity, had on the mental health of disadvantaged communities, including black and minority ethnic? Work and welfare - what impact have widespread welfare reforms had on mental health, and what welfare policies might better promote mental health?

FACTOID: A Feasibility study of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Older people with treatment-resistant generalised anxiety Disorder

The FACTOID Study is examining how acceptable and feasible it is to develop a new form of talking therapy for older people with generalised anxiety disorder or chronic worrying that has not responded to treatment well. This new form of talking therapy is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; a form of talking therapy that helps people to learn new ways of handling distressing thought and feelings.

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INTREPID II: INternational Research Programme on Psychoses In Diverse Settings

Around 20 million worldwide experience a psychotic disorder. However, what we know about these disorders is based on research done mainly in Europe, North America, and Australia. We know little about these disorders in other places, especially developing countries. The overall aim of this project is to address the research questions: what is the variability – in incidence, presentation, outcome and impact – of disorders in diverse developing countries?

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REACH: Resilience, Ethnicity, and AdolesCent Mental Health

Most mental health problems first emerge during adolescence.  Their frequency, type, and persistence over time vary by ethnic group.  Understanding what factors increase and decrease risk for such problems during these critical phases, in a range of ethnic groups, is important for developing strategies for prevention and intervention.  REACH aims to investigate the impact of social, psychological, and biological risk and protective factors on the occurrence and persistence of mental health problems over time in large, ethnically diverse cohorts of adolescents.

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Risk and Protective Factors for Unfounded Paranoid Ideation in Adolescents: A Virtual Reality Study

With 50% of all adult mental health problems beginning before the age of 14, adolescence is a critical developmental period during which targeted intervention to prevent the emergence of psychosis and other mental health problems may have a substantial impact. The critical first step to developing such interventions is to understand what factors increase and decrease risk, and the mechanisms through which they exert their effects. This project aims to examine the prevalence and incidence of unfounded paranoid ideation amongst adolescents using virtual reality to investigate predictors of and mechanisms associated with the onset and maintenance of paranoid thinking in a cohort of 400 young people in South London. To find out more, please contact Charlotte Gayer-Anderson at charlotte.gayer-anderson@kcl.ac.uk