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An estimated one in four people in the UK will experience depression or anxiety at some point in their lives. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the most widely recommended non-medication- based treatment for common mental health problems, although access to this treatment is limited because of low numbers of expert practitioners. Self-help CBT resources developed by researchers at the University of Glasgow have been integrated into routine clinical practice delivered by health services and the voluntary sector in the UK, Ireland and Canada. Since 2008, these practical user-friendly resources have provided support to over 200,000 users online and an estimated 250,000 people on a one-to-one basis or within a class.
Bulimic eating disorders are disabling conditions affecting approximately 5% of the population. Effective specialist treatment exists in the form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), but only a minority of patients access this. Researchers at King's College London developed book-, CD-ROM-and web-based CBT self-care interventions for bulimic disorders that provide early effective treatment with outcomes comparable to costly specialist CBT. Locally, at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Eating Disorders Service, this has significantly reduced waiting lists. The research has had national and international impact with UK, German and US guidelines endorsing guided self-care as a first treatment step for bulimic disorders and the KCL manual and website are internationally recommended.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disorder of unknown cause affecting 1% of people. Studies by Queen Mary researchers between 1993 and 2012 helped to characterise and demystify CFS and, in a series of randomised trials, showed that graded exercise therapy (GET) was effective and cost-effective, especially when costs to the patient and society were included. For impacts, GET was [a] recommended in NICE guidance; [b] offered as standard therapy in most UK centres managing CFS; [c] recommended and used internationally. The lead researchers have worked hard to build a dialogue with patient groups, including working with them to co-design the most recent trial, thereby increasing the chance of acceptance of findings by people affected by CFS.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is characterised by prolonged and profound fatigue. The prevalence of CFS is between 0.2% and 2.6% worldwide. Researchers from King's College London (KCL) have shown that Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Graded Exercise Therapy can improve the symptoms and disability of CFS. This evidence led to both therapies being recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the British Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME and becoming standard practice in the UK. These treatments, backed by the KCL studies, are also recommended worldwide including in the United States, Australia and Norway.
Eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and related conditions) are common, often chronic and disabling, and sometimes fatal. Christopher Fairburn and colleagues have engaged in long-term research into the nature and treatment of eating disorders. The impacts are: (1) developing the standard measurement tools for eating disorders; (2) devising the leading and most effective evidence-based therapy for bulimia nervosa (`CBT-BN'); (3) showing that a modified form of the treatment is effective for all eating disorders (`CBT-E'); (4) developing an effective and popular self-help version. These treatments allow, for the first time, a significant chance of complete and sustained recovery from an eating disorder. The treatments are recommended by NICE and international guidelines, and are being disseminated worldwide.
Research into primary care insomnia by the Community and Health Research Unit (CaHRU) has led to broad improvements in healthcare provision for insomnia, improved patient quality of life, informed national/international policy and practice in insomnia care and impacted directly on health professional practice and insomnia sufferers, initially in Lincolnshire spreading across the UK and internationally from 2008 to 2011. Direct effects on practice include changes in sleep management and reduced hypnotic prescribing through seminars, workshops, conferences and e-learning developed by the team; inclusion in UK policy, practitioner information, training materials and guidance on hypnotics has led to greater professional and public awareness of sleep management internationally.
Depression is a major public health problem producing substantial decrements in health and well-being, with 15% lifetime prevalence, affecting 350 million people worldwide. The Mood Disorders Centre (MDC) has improved treatment for depression by (i) understanding psychological mechanisms underpinning depression; (ii) translating this into innovative treatments and prevention interventions, evaluated in clinical trials; (iii) improving dissemination, delivery, and access to treatments. This research has improved patient care and quality of life, influenced national policy (NICE Depression Guidelines), informed national service and training provision (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies IAPT programme, with 680,000 people completing treatment 2008-2011) and achieved international impact on clinical practice.
A decade of research at the University of Southampton has given thousands of people around the world suffering from dizziness and balance disorders access to a self-management resource that can alleviate their symptoms. Professor Lucy Yardley has pioneered the use of a Balance Retraining (BR) booklet to transform the means of delivering cost-effective, life-changing treatment previously offered to less than one in ten UK patients. The booklet, translated into several languages, has been distributed to patients and practitioners as far afield as China and Japan. Yardley's findings have contributed the bulk of good quality evidence to the Cochrane Review on vestibular rehabilitation.
Psychosis affects 3-4% of the UK population and is ranked as the third most disabling condition worldwide by the World Health Organisation. Research at the University of Glasgow has changed treatment and services for patients with psychosis by identifying therapies that improve emotional recovery and prevent psychosis relapse and by contributing to the development of early intervention services for individuals with a first episode of psychosis. This work has supported the inclusion of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for psychosis in national clinical guidelines and the implementation of these guidelines via an expanded UK Department of Health programme. University of Glasgow research has also driven the development and expansion of local early intervention services for psychosis, the success of which has directly informed the current Scottish Government Mental Health Strategy.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS (also known as CFS/ME) affects two percent of the population. Michael Sharpe and colleagues in Oxford developed a cognitive behavioural treatment (CBT) for CFS. In 1996 they published the first randomised controlled trial finding that CBT was substantially more effective than standard care, with patients three times more likely to improve. This was the first treatment ever to be shown to be effective for CFS in a clinical trial. The finding was subsequently confirmed in other trials. Sharpe's research has benefitted people with CFS by: [a] challenging the prevailing view of the illness as untreatable, [b] informing current NICE treatment guidance, [c] providing the leading evidence-based treatment. In England alone, the treatment is implemented in 46 NHS specialist CFS centres, to over 7000 patients per year.