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People with personality disorders (PD) have enduring and serious difficulties in relating to others and their treatment remains one of the most challenging areas in psychiatry. Until recently, service provision for such individuals was extremely variable in both quality and quantity. Research at King's College London (KCL) has helped highlight the considerable public health and economic impacts of personality disorders and has had a significant impact on current treatment guidelines in the UK. KCL research also led to the development of a brief and simple screening test for personality disorders — the Standard Assessment of Personality Abbreviated Scale (SAPAS) — which is now recommended for use in the UK Government's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies initiative, under which nearly a million patients a year are seen.
More than 240,000 people with kidney failure are treated with peritoneal dialysis (PD) worldwide. Cardiff University pioneered novel test methods that identified deleterious dialysis solution components, leading directly to manufacturers introducing more biocompatible dialysis fluids that improve patient outcomes. Cardiff investigators designed and ran the early clinical studies on these new fluids, which now lead the PD solutions market worldwide, and are recommended in European clinical guidelines. Recent evidence suggests that their use reduces peritonitis severity, decreases peritonitis incidence by 40% and mortality by 30%, resulting in reduced hospitilsation and significant healthcare savings.
Research at Edinburgh Napier University regarding psychosocial interventions for trauma has pioneered management of mental health problems. We have developed and tested a number of individual, group and self-help interventions aimed at promoting recovery following psychological childhood and adulthood trauma. We have trained a large number of healthcare professionals on our interventions in the voluntary and statutory sectors. Our research has also informed policy regarding the management of psychological trauma. Self-help materials developed through our research are currently being used by health and social care workers in Scotland and abroad, making an impact on the wellbeing of survivors of trauma.
Research by Anke Ehlers' group at Oxford University has had major impacts on the treatment and outcome of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The group developed and validated a psychological model of the key factors that lead to PTSD. A novel form of cognitive therapy (CT) that specifically targets these psychological processes was then developed. Randomised controlled trials showed that CT is highly acceptable and highly effective in recent-onset and chronic PTSD, in adults and children. It is one of the recommended first-line interventions in the NICE PTSD guideline. It has been made widely available in the NHS through Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), and is being disseminated in other countries. Separate research by Ehlers showed that a previously leading treatment, debriefing, was ineffective, leading to it not being recommended by NICE.
Research conducted by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) has changed the way power cables and motors are monitored in EDF Energy's nuclear power stations in the UK and Wuhan Electrical Power Company, China, providing the companies with innovative techniques enabling them to identify insulation defects and improve their maintenance programme. Application of the research output has helped the companies to enhance practice in PD testing, reduce maintenance and repair costs by millions of pounds whilst reliably supplying over 20% of the UK's power generation, and an area with over 10 million people in China.
Condition monitoring instrumentation for high voltage plant has been developed at GCU under contract research for Doble Engineering (Headquarters in MA, USA), a global service provider for the electric power industry. The instruments are an important new line of products for Doble providing increased sales revenue and service provision. The instruments have been widely adopted by Doble's global client base to provide improved asset management. Other beneficiaries of the work include global contract electronic manufacturing companies. In 2012 Doble invested £1.2 million in an Innovation Centre at GCU to support their product development road map.
Lancaster research has changed the understanding and treatment of bipolar disorder (BD) from biological models and pharmacological treatments to integrated psychosocial interventions complementary to routine medication and matched to user needs. We have developed novel psychological interventions (individual, family and group approaches), and reliable and valid ways to assess valued outcomes and underlying mechanisms of change. This research has delivered 3 major impacts. It has: fundamentally changed understanding of the condition in professional and lay audiences; changed treatment in terms of policy and practice, including NICE clinical guidelines; changed professional training delivered both nationally and internationally.
Research by Professors John Stein and Tipu Aziz at the University of Oxford has had a significant impact on advanced Parkinson's disease patients affected by freezing of gait and loss of balance. Since 2008 deep brain stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus has resulted in major improvements in both gait and posture in Parkinson's disease patients who have been treated with dopaminergic drugs for several years, but who had suffered the return of severely disabling movement problems. Around two hundred patients have been successfully treated worldwide through this pioneering surgery, with associated improvements in quality of life.
Research led by Professor Paul J Thornalley since 1993, (University of Warwick, 2007-present), revealed the formation of harmful reactive dicarbonyl compounds (also known as glucose degradation products, GDPs) within the glucose osmolyte of first-generation peritoneal dialysis (PD) fluids. Clinical studies confirmed the increased damage to proteins in patients on PD therapy. In response to these findings, major manufacturers of PD fluids changed their manufacturing processes to minimise GDP content by separating glucose and buffer components within two-compartment bags for heat sterilisation, and by using osmolyte that is resistant to thermal degradation. PD fluids with low GDP content have been associated with improved clinical outcomes for patients receiving dialysis, including maintained residual renal function, decreased peritonitis, and decreased fluid infusion pain. They have been widely implemented in clinical use since 2010. Globally, approximately 240,000 patients receive PD therapy.
Innovative research at Strathclyde University, embodied in its spinout Diagnostic Monitoring Systems (DMS) Ltd, has enabled the Glasgow-based company to become the premier supplier of ultra-high frequency (UHF) systems for detecting harmful partial discharge (PD) activity in high-value gas insulated substations and power transformers. Annual sales rose from £6.7M in 2008 to £11M in 2012, and its staff doubled to 56 employees. DMS' equipment is utilised in 27 countries, with total exports over 2008 - 2013 exceeding £45M. A sustained partnership with Strathclyde has yielded new sensor technologies and secured mainstream international recognition for UHF PD detection techniques, which are being incorporated within a new IEC standard. Economic value of Strathclyde's UHF technology was further emphasised in 2009 when DMS was acquired by Qualitrol, part of the US $46B Danaher Corp that owns numerous global engineering brands including Tektronix, Fluke, Leica Microsystems and Gilbarco Veeder-Root.