Take part in research

Many autistic children perceive the sensory world around us differently. Some autistic children for example are overwhelmed by sounds. This can make everyday situations challenging. Being overly sensitive has also been linked to anxiety. This project will explore if sensory reactivity can predict later anxiety and related mental health symptoms.

To do so we will follow autistic children for two years, starting at age four. We will ask caregivers questions about their child’s anxiety level and how their child reacts to the sensory world around them. We will also observe children’s reactions towards sensory stimuli directly, such as different sounds. Understanding sensory processing and the relationship to anxiety better will help us to understand autistic children and their needs better. 

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective talking treatment for anxiety disorders, but courses are long and difficult to access. However, we have recently shown that even a single session of CBT already has an effect on anxiety. On the other hand, research has shown that a simple blood pressure medication called losartan can improve cognition and memory.

In this study, we would like to test whether combining a single-session of CBT with losartan can improve effects on anxiety, and what the underlying brain mechanisms of such an enhancement effect are. It is hoped that the knowledge gained from this study will contribute to the improvement of treatment for people who experience distressing panic attacks and anxiety disorders.

We aim to compare the effectiveness of quetiapine and lithium in people with treatment resistant depression.

The study is aimed at people who are struggling with depression, who are currently taking antidepressants that don't seem to be working for them. 

After checking for eligibility, participants will be randomised to quetiapine or lithium, which they will take alongside their current antidepressant for as long as is right for them. The study would want to follow participants up for 12 months, and there will be 4 or 5 meetings throughout the year with the researcher to assess how things are going.

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that inflammation of the brain and central nervous system is linked to multiple mental health issues, including major depressive disorder (MDD). The purpose of this study is to see if adding a course of anti-inflammatory medication (minocycline) or a placebo (sugar pill) alongside a current course of antidepressant treatment (SSRI medications) can help to reduce depressive symptoms in MDD that has not responded treatment with antidepressants alone.

STAARS is part of the British Autism Study of Infant Siblings (BASIS), a UK-wide network of researchers. Our aim is to learn more about the early development of baby brothers and sisters of children with autism and/or ADHD. We hope our studies will in the long-term help to improve diagnosis of children with autism and ADHD and make it possible to design earlier and more effective interventions.

Infant participants visit our Babylab in London to complete short screen-based tasks such as watching faces or colourful animations and take part in interactive play sessions. If you are pregnant, or have a baby between 0 - 10 months AND have an older child who has been diagnosed with autism and/or ADHD, please contact us for more information.

We are recruiting people with no history of mental health, and people with current depression.

The study involves three sessions. The first session takes 1-2 hours, we will do some interviews and questionnaires asking you about your mood, past experience of mental health and family history. The second and third sessions have the same structure: you will drink a drink containing either placebo/LDOPA, then you will wait one hour, we will take a blood sample and you will complete some computer games.

Please email if you have any questions, we will be happy to answer them.

The Tackling Inequalities and Discrimination Experiences in health Services (TIDES) survey will investigate how discrimination experienced by both patients and healthcare practitioners may generate and perpetuate inequalities in health service use. As part of this, the TIDES team is currently conducting a survey which aims to understand how discrimination witnessed and experienced by healthcare practitioners is related to job satisfaction and mental well-being, and how this may contribute to inequalities in health service use. The results of this study will aid future policies and improvements to health services that will help both healthcare practitioners and people in the community.

We are trying to understand the genetic causes of schizophrenia-like illnesses that onset before the age of 14. We interview the family members and collect saliva for DNA from the affected child/adult and parents if possible. We also talk to the treating psychiatrist and take copies of medical records.

Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) has highly diverse clinical presentations but also diverse possible biological causes. Research suggests that both core and co-occurring conditions might be partially due to an imbalance in two key brain molecules, glutamate and GABA. 

In this project we will measure the brain response before and after a single dose of a drug that acts in the GABA part of this system. We will use safe neuroimaging brain scans and also ask participants to perform simple tasks out of the scanner whilst recording their brain activity using a cap with sensors. 

We will ask the participants to come for 3 visits to King's College, Denmark Hill campus, London.

Research indicates that several forms of psychological therapy are effective for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but it is unclear how they should be best delivered. You are invited to participate in a study comparing two different types of internet-delivered therapy for PTSD. Both therapies involve working through a therapy programme online, with guidance from a therapist via secure messaging and telephone calls, for three months. A total of 175 patients for whom the treatment is suitable will be taking part in the study.

We are investigating the factors that may lead to the development of mental health problems, from genetics and biology to psychological and environmental factors.

Taking part is easy: it involves completing an online survey which asks about your contact details and some personal information, like your ethnicity and date of birth. There are also questions about your mental and physical health, as well as your lifestyle. It should take around 10-15 minutes to complete and all the information you provide is confidential. 

Depending on the information you provide, for example, where you live or the diagnoses you’ve received, we may contact you about arranging a one-to-one interview with one of our researchers to help us collect more detailed information about your experiences.

Lithium is an effective prophylactic drug for patients with bipolar disorder. However, it is not well tolerated, requires regular monitoring & has a narrow therapeutic index. Identifying a drug that has the same action but is better tolerated & safer would be advantageous. Lithium has a number of possible therapeutic targets but there is good evidence that lithium's inhibition of inositol monophosphatase (IMPase) is a key mechanism in its effects. In this study we propose to test ebselen, as a potential lithium-mimetic through its ability to inhibit IMPase. Ebselen has been shown in both animal and humans to lower inositol levels. The present study of ebselen is an 'add-on' treatment in patients with hypo/mania. 60 patients will be randomised to ebselen or matching placebo for 3 weeks.

Interoception is the ability to sense internal changes in the body such as heart rate. Some of our recent work has shown anxiety can be increased if there is a discrepancy between how well patients feel they can interpret bodily signals, such as their heartbeat, and how well they are actually able to do this. We have found that helping people to be more aware of their ability, and to increase their ability to interpret signals from the body helps reduce and may prevent anxiety symptoms. We will compare a new treatment, Aligning Dimensions of Interoceptive Experience (ADIE), against the current treatment in individuals with ASC (autism spectrum conditions). In a subset of participants we will use state of the art neuroimaging to investigate the brains physiological response to ADIE therapy.

About one third of patients with depression do not benefit from current treatments and they often have increased levels of peripheral inflammatory biomarkers. To identify new therapeutic targets, it is crucial to investigate the inflammatory system role in the pathogenesis of depression. A possible mechanism may be the association between peripheral inflammation and inflammation in the brain. This study investigates whether increased peripheral immune activation due to administration of peripheral immune challenge, interferon-alpha 2a, can cause temporary immune activation in the brain of healthy volunteers. So, peripheral (blood samples) and central (PET imaging) inflammation measures will be collected before and after interferon-alpha administration, in 5 healthy participants attending 3 visits.

After having checked participants' health status on the first visit, we will inject a substance that has been safely used for many years in research studies to study inflammation in people. This will cause a temporary inflammation in the body which will last only few hours. We will take some pictures of the brain (using MRI and PET) before and after this injection and take small samples of blood to understand if inflammation in the body is associated with inflammation in the brain. Participants will also be asked a few questions regarding their well-being, mood, and their quality of life. This will involve an interview with a psychology/psychiatry trained researcher, filling in a few simple questionnaires. 

14 - 21 day treatment (depending on your availability) with the antidepressant Escitalopram or Placebo tablet.

The study involves three sessions:

• Session 1 – This is an eligibility check session. We conduct a series of interviews that discuss your mood, experiences that you may or may not have had as well as some drug and alcohol use. We also do an ECG in this session to check that your heart is fine.
• Session 2 – You will do some behavioural tasks 2 out of the scanner and 3 in the MRI scanner. Two of these tasks will involve threat of shock, where you will be given random electric shocks. These shocks are uncomfortable but NOT painful. After this session you will be given the medication which will either be the drug or placebo, you will then go away for 14-21 days (depending on your availability and take the medication once a day.
• Session 3 – After the 14-21 days you will come back in and do the exact same session as session 2.

The Gut Hormone in Addiction () Study is investigating if certain hormones from the stomach and intestine have the potential to prevent relapse in alcohol dependence. We are examining their effects on addictive and eating behaviours, using brain scanning. We are recruiting people who have recently given up drinking alcohol (and others who are overweight or ex-smokers). We will investigate the effects of these hormones by their infusion into a vein in the arm while people undergo an MRI scan and do some simple computer tasks. They will also complete some questionnaires and have blood taken. These hormones have been used in many medical research studies before and are safe. The study involves a screening visit and 3 study visits at Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 over 2 months.

This study aims to explore the interactions between daytime preferences (do you like to wake early and go to bed early or do you prefer to sleep late and go to bed late), sleep quality, mood, feelings and experiences and decision making.  During this survey you will be invited to complete a number of questionnaires that assess your sleep patterns, quality of sleep, moods, feelings and experiences. You will also be asked to complete a simple decision making task. We aim to include up to 500 participants in this study.

Many people experiencing mental health problems may also have suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Some are able to cope with suicidal thoughts and behaviours. We want to find out if resilience can reduce these feelings.

If you have a GP and/or are under the care of mental health services for problems with:

• schizophrenia/non-affective psychosis, and 
• have had suicidal thoughts or behaviours, the project may be of interest to you.

You will be asked questions about your mental health and to fill out some questionnaires about your thoughts and feelings at the beginning of the study and 3 months later. A meeting will be arranged at a time and place convenient for you or over the phone.

We are grateful of your time. A compensation will be offered at the end of each assessment point.

The aim of this study is to determine if altering the pattern of one's sleep and having light therapy can speed up the treatment of depression. In the UK, the large majority of patients with depression in the NHS are treated in the community, and one of the major objectives of the study one is to determine if this therapy is a practical treatment in the community. 

Some people occasionally binge on large volumes of food and feel that they lose control over their eating. Such bingeing can cause negative thoughts, have unintended health consequences, and can also lead to more serious eating disorders such as Binge Eating Disorder. We wish to understand why some people experience this issue and whether we can develop better ways to help people reduce or manage bingeing. The latest research in psychology and neuroscience suggests that the way people learn about the rewarding aspects of food is an important factor in binge eating. Some people, for instance, find that certain "trigger foods" tend to cause bingeing. We wish to test this theory directly and assess whether trying to change unhelpful responses to foods might affect bingeing behaviours. 

We are looking for men who are currently expecting their first child or who have had their first baby within the last 12 months and are interested in participating in research concerning the experience of being a father.

RADAR-MDD aims to use wearable technology, such as smartphone sensors and fitness trackers, to measure symptoms of major depressive disorder and predict future relapse. We are recruiting people who have recently experienced depression to participate. Participants will be given a FitBit and asked to download some apps onto their smartphone: some apps will be used to collect information from sensors which are already in most modern smarpthone; other apps will be used for participants to answer questionnaires about their mood and social environment, or complete some cognitive tasks. For a maximum of 2-years, this data will provide insight into changes in physical activity, sleep, stress, mood, sociability, speech and cognitive function, which may be associated with future depressive relapse. 

Self-concept is an integral part of our self-identity and what makes us different to other people. This study is all about how we think about ourselves as individuals but also in relation to groups. Participants will need to fill some questionnaires and complete one computer task. 

We are investigating a new psychological therapy, called Cognitive Remediation Therapy. Our aim is to assess whether cognitive remediation can improve thinking skills and general functioning in people with bipolar disorder.

After we have verified your eligibility to take part, we would ask you to come in for 3 assessments in total (over a 6-month period), which will include a variety of tasks and questionnaires. You may also be randomly allocated to receive cognitive remediation therapy, which includes training sessions with a therapist 2 or 3 times per week for 12 weeks in South London.

The Brain Imaging in Babies study (BIBS) aims to improve understanding of how a baby's brain develops from before birth up until 3-4 years of age. We are also interested in better understanding brain development in babies who have a family history of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Boys (aged between 10 and 18-years) with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) will be trained over several sessions to improve their attention and self-control skills with a computer game and at the same time they will receive brain stimulation using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). tDCS consists of a very small electrical current which will be placed over a frontal part of your brain to boost the learning effect in the computer game by giving your brain an extra “push”. tDCS has been around for more than 20 years, it is completely safe, has no side effects and is used in many other patient groups. This study will help the development of a new treatment for ADHD that is not reliant on pharmacological medication.

10 to 18 year old boys with ADHD will be trained over several sessions to enhance their brain activity in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner by playing on a computer game with their brain activity. By seeing their brain activity directly they will be able to learn to change it. This is called Neurofeedback. Our previous pilot study showed that Neurofeedback improved all the behavioural problems ADHD children have and the attention skills as measured in attention tests. We also found that the positive effects were still observed and even better 11 months after the study and that there were no side effects of any kind. This study will be much larger and we plan to find the same positive effects. This study will help to develop a new treatment for ADHD that is not using medication.

The STRATIFY study is a major brain imaging project that aims to investigate the relationship between brain and behaviour. The study involves questionnaires in the comfort of your home and visiting King's College London to complete some tasks, questionnaires, and provide a blood and urine sample followed by a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. 

We are interested in exploring whether improving learning about social information might be beneficial to young people and how does this relates to their well-being. Participants will be asked to complete some computer tasks on reasoning and social cognition, and questionnaires relating to well-being. Participants will then be randomly assigned to one of the two training group and complete an online training on for 14 days. The training lasts for at least 10 minutes per day. Once training is complete, participants will be asked to complete the same computer tasks and questionnaires again, followed with a follow up questionnaire 1 month later. 

We are seeking university students to participate in PLUS, an online study of personality, lifestyle and mental health. The study will look at whether an online programme designed to help students can improve wellbeing.

Taking part involves filling out online questionnaires and completing a series of online sessions. You’ll receive feedback on your questionnaire responses, allowing you to learn more about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. 

I’m interested in exploring new ways of targeting the experience of loss of control over eating in bulimia and binge eating disorder, and looking at potential mechanisms that might be involved in maintaining disordered eating. My research will thus involve testing a new computer-based intervention, which we hope will help tackle these experiences, as well as measuring brain mechanisms using the non-invasive EEG technique.

Psychosis is the most common severe mental illness that affects 1% of the population. Coping with psychosis is often a challenging demand for the individual as well as for everyone close to them, including family members, relatives, partners and close friends (referred to as carers hereafter). The EFFIP (E-support for Families & Friends of Individuals affected by Psychosis) Project team comprising people with lived experience of psychosis, carers and professionals, has developed an online resource, called COPe. COPe provides information, peer support and coping strategies for their caregiving roles and promotes self-care. The current study aims to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of COPe in improving carers' wellbeing and other health related outcomes, compared to the waitlist-control.

Some people occasionally binge on large volumes of food and feel that they lose control over their eating on these occasions. This can cause negative thoughts and emotions, have unintended health consequences such as weight gain, and can lead to more serious eating disorders like Binge Eating Disorder.

The latest research in psychology and neuroscience suggests that the way people learn about rewards, particularly with regards to food, is an important factor in binge eating. Some people, for instance, find that certain ‘trigger foods’ tend to cause bingeing.

We wish to test this theory directly and assess whether trying to change unhelpful responses to foods might affect bingeing.

We know that adolescence is a sensitive time and can result in raised levels of anxiety; for the majority these concerns disappear very quickly, but for a small number of individuals these concerns can negatively impact on their wellbeing and adjustment.

It has been shown that the way individuals focus their attention can contribute to anxiety symptoms. We have developed a new computerised intervention that aims to modify the way that young people focus their automatic attention and are looking for potential participants for a study testing this intervention. We are looking for young people (aged 12-18) who are experiencing high levels of anxiety.

The programme involves completing up to 12 sessions and you will be offered gift vouchers up to £110 as a thank you for your time.

We are looking for people who are experiencing persistent low mood and not taking antidepressants or undergoing psychological therapy, to take part in a study investigating how a new medication affects emotional decision making.

The study involves psychological tasks, one brain scan using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and taking medication for 7 days. You will be asked questions about your medical history to check your suitability for the study.

Do you have trouble sleeping and low mood?

We are looking for adults aged 25-65 to participate in an online study looking into poor sleep (insomnia) and how it affects mood and emotional wellbeing.

The study will require 16 weeks of participation, and you will be compensated for your time.

We are recruiting participants for research looking at the effects of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) on the storage of emotional memories. 

This project aims to understand the way in which people with anorexia nervosa (current or past diagnosis) process emotional and social information.

The testing session will involve a variety of computer-based tasks, some of which use eye-tracking - this is a non-intrusive procedure and just involves looking at images and videos on a computer screen. You will also be asked to complete a number of self-report questionnaires, and the researcher will conduct a clinical interview with you. Your height and weight will also be taken (however you will have the option to be blind weighed).

Testing takes place at King's College London, Denmark Hill, London.

We are looking for people who are experiencing persistent low mood despite taking antidepressants, to take part in a study investigating how a new medication affects emotional decision making.

The study involves psychological tasks and taking medication for 7 days. You will be asked questions about your medical history to check your suitability for the study.

In most countries, children with visual impairment are able to attend regular schools where they become friends with their sighted classmates. It has been found that the social interactions among adolescents affect the feelings they develop about themselves (self-concept).

In addition, students who have a positive picture of themselves succeed better in their romantic relationships and future working life.

This study explores the importance of feeling included in school on the self-concept of adolescents with visual impairment.Both sighted and students with visual impairments, as well as their parents, are asked to take part in the study in order to compare the social relationships they develop with their teachers and peers.

A specific phobia is a type of anxiety disorder which causes an overwhelming fear, whatever is causing the fear. 5% - 10% of children have a specific phobia impacting their lives, lasting an average of 20 years.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a successful treatment for phobias, but there are long waiting lists and people often don’t complete all their sessions. A promising alternative, One Session Therapy (OST), utilises graduated exposure to the source of fear. It has been shown to be particularly helpful with alleviating specific phobias. Multi-session CBT is a commonly offered treatment which involves both cognitive and behavioural aspects.

Once recruited, children will be randomly allocated to receive either one session or multi-session CBT based therapy.

Mindfulness meditation has been found to be helpful for symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. This study wants to find out if doing the same or different mindfulness meditations have a different impact on anxiety, depression and stress, as well as overall wellbeing.

This study is a 2-week online investigation, where participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: same meditation, different meditations, or listening to an audiobook. This is to compare the two types of meditation as well as testing whether they are better than a different relaxing activity.

After checking for eligibility, participants will be asked to access an online audio file daily for 2 weeks. They will also be asked to complete questionnaires at 1 week and 2 weeks after starting the study.

Even though self-harm is common very often people don’t seek any help. As many as half of young people are thought to deal with self-harm alone. Here at SHARE UK we want this to change. We need to learn more so that we can improve things like the support available in hospitals or in schools.

For this we need your help. If we know more about what kind of things would help people in the real world we can come up with new ideas and better support.

Everything you tell us is completely anonymous and confidential.

Once you have signed up you can answer some questions about yourself, fill out questionnaires, add to our media databank or sign up for our research register.

Everything is optional and you can tell us as much or as little as you like.

A free online toolkit has been developed to support the return to work of those who have been absent from work due to mental ill-health. The toolkit offers practical guidance, checklists, templates and advice. It has been developed with the input of employees, managers, business owners, employment lawyers and professionals working in Human Resources and Occupational Health around the UK.

The researchers, based at Kingston and Loughborough universities, are looking for individuals to complete short surveys and interviews about the toolkit. As part of the evaluation they will be asking employers and employees about their experience of returning to work.

We are looking for individuals with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) (aged 18-75) to participate in a study looking at how obsessions and compulsions are experienced as people go about their everyday life.

The project involves:

• A brief screening assessment on the phone
• Completing online questionnaires (15-20 min)
• Downloading and using a research app on your phone where, for 10 days, you will rate your experiences several times throughout the day. Ratings typically take less than a minute to complete.

You must own and have access to an Android smartphone which you can keep close by for the duration of the study. If interested, you can receive a summary of how your symptoms changed over time during the study.

Most individuals with depression and OCD do not respond to their first antidepressant treatment; it often takes several attempts before finding one that works.

This lack of precision means that individuals endure prolonged ineffective treatment and side effects before getting any relief.

With your help, we aim to develop a tool that will allow doctors to match the right antidepressant with the right person - helping people get better, faster.

It is an internet-based study so you can complete participation from your own home.

We are looking for both healthy adults and people with bipolar disorder, aged 18-60, to take part in our research study.

Participants will attend a health check screening to assess eligibility and suitable participants will be invited to take part in the study, which involves a baseline assessment day and two scanning days.

Participants will take a medication called JNJ-18038683 for one week and placebo for one week before each scan visit. JNJ-18038683, blocks the 5HT7 receptor and may be a promising new treatment for cognitive impairment in people with bipolar disorder. On each scanning day, participants will then have an MRI brain scan whilst completing computer tasks, complete a variety of mood questionnaires, and have another physical exam.

The aim of this study is to investigate the differences in mechanisms of action of psilocybin, the active ingredient in 'magic mushrooms', and the SSRI escitalopram for major depressive disorder.

All participants will have moderate-severe major depression and will receive two doses of psilocybin, three weeks apart. Psilocybin dosages will vary across the study. Some participants will also take escitalopram for 6 weeks (10mg for 3 weeks then 20mg for a further 3 weeks).

All participants will have their brains scanned before the first psilocybin dose and then 6 weeks later. There will be 7 study visits over the course of 3-4 months and participants will be expected to complete weekly questionnaires. There will also be a Skype interview 6 months after treatment and a few monthly questions.

The proposed project is a feasibility study for a small scale pragmatic randomised control trial (RCT).

It aims to assess:

• whether patients felt the same or different after CBT or acupuncture
• and show whether patients liked acupuncture as well as CBT
• recruitment and retention
• safety

Studies of the benefits of treatment for depression use a variety of metrics to represent change experienced by patients. However, certain symptom changes might be valued differently from the patients' perspective compared to the clinicians'. Data from this survey would better inform researchers and clinicians to what symptom level changes patients actually value.

This survey should take under 10 minutes to complete. Thank you for considering participation.

Depression and anxiety are common but complex disorders, whose research needs very large sample sizes. The Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) study aims to recruit >40,000 individuals. Anyone 16 or older who has experienced anxiety or depression during their lives can join this recontactable database to facilitate future research.

How can I take part?
All enrollment takes place online at our website (see below). An online animation explains the consent process with more detailed information in text format. Once you have provided consent and completed an online questionnaire you will be sent a saliva DNA sample kit to enable genetic studies.

We really hope you will join us in this important endeavour!

We are looking for participants with PERSISTENT ANXIETY AND/OR LOW MOOD to take part in our research study on the effects of antidepressant SSRIs on learning and emotional processing. It is hoped that this research will contribute to an improved understanding of depression and anxiety.

Study overview: a 14 or 21 day treatment of the antidepressant, escitalopram, or placebo, with behavioural and neuroimaging (fMRI) testing prior to and after the treatment. Some tasks will involve non-harmful electrical shocks.

We are recruiting participants for a study that allows them to track their mood using images via their smartphones during their everyday lives.

More specifically, our study involves installing an Android application and using it for at least two weeks. The application lets participants record their emotional state several times a day using images. They are able to track how their mood evolves during the week and relate it to images submitted.

This information, together with phone usage data, is periodically transmitted to UCL servers. In turn, our findings will be used to inform the design of systems for behavioural health interventions.

Lots of people who take antipsychotic medication find they experience sexual problems. Both men and women can be affected by sexual problems, which may include a lower sex drive or getting less pleasure from sex. At the moment, we don't know the best way to help people. One possible option is to change to a different medication that may cause fewer sexual problems.

The REMEDY study will compare a group of people that stay on the same antipsychotic medication to another group that changes to a different one to see if there is a difference between the two groups. We will also offer all people advice and support aimed at helping improve their sexual functioning.

This study looks at two different types of medication that are sometimes used in treatment of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The medications we are studying are called Lisdexamfetamine and Guanfacine. We would like to find out how these two drugs acts on the brain of children and adolescents with ADHD. This is where you can help us!

This is a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) study which means that you will be asked to come to the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences at Denmark Hill to have some brain scans. You will be asked to do some computer tasks while lying still in the scanner. We would like you to come in for four days within 3 weeks., i.e. for a screening appointment and three scans separated by a week each. We can also give you a picture of your brain!

It is known that people are increasingly turning to social media to find support, information, and communities with similar experiences, especially in relation to health concerns. However, the forms and ethics of care online are still not fully understood or explored.

Through a Wellcome Trust seed award, we are exploring how people turn to social media to seek support or information in relation to self-harm.

We would like to understand the ways in which social media may be a resource through which people care for their own or others' mental health needs and the benefits and/or drawbacks of this.

It is estimated that in the UK alone over 2 million children are living with a parent who has a common mental health disorder. Research has highlighted that families affected by parental mental distress are among the most vulnerable in our community, and that interventions are more successful when the social and family contexts are considered. Although there is some research on adult children, who have experienced childhood parental mental distress, there are no studies which explore how siblings understand this experience.

The research invites siblings to share their story in a face-to-face interview, lasting approximately an hour. Interview locations are flexible depending on your needs, but can include the University of Hertfordshire, a community location, or your home.

It is hoped that this project will provide some understanding on how relationships within the family are shaped in the context of parental mental distress and add to the literature on the importance of considering and working with the family in clinical practice.

This research is being conducted as part of a doctoral training qualification in Clinical Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire.

Participation is on a voluntary basis.

You are being invited to take part in a research study that will help to develop a questionnaire. This questionnaire will measure different types of relationship styles in psychosis. It is hoped that this will help to explore which factors influence the development of experiences such as hearing voices and feeling suspicious.

The study involves completing an online survey. There are eight sections to complete. On average it takes 20-30 minutes. The study is online (link below).

Please be aware that this study includes questions about potentially sensitive topics, including early adverse experiences, substance use, self-harm and aggression.

This research involves answering a survey. The research is on people's childhood experiences, psychological symptoms, self-harm and aggression. If you are over 18, please click the link to learn more about the study.

This study is investigating what support people with experience of psychosis want when discontinuing antipsychotic medication.

To take part in the research you would need to complete two online questionnaires approximately one month apart. Each questionnaire should take no longer than 30 minutes to complete. 

Individuals with eating disorders often struggle to manage and regulate their emotions. There is some evidence to suggest that they may be more sensitive to the emotions of others, particularly the negative emotions of others. However, there is a lack of research considering how this emotional sensitivity amongst individuals with a diagnosis of an eating disorder may be related to family and peer characteristics and relationships.

This study considers how emotional sensitivity and social factors may be related to the presence of an eating disorder in adult women with a diagnosis of an eating disorder. Participation in this study will involve completing some online questionnaires.

You are being invited to take part in a study which is looking at the self-efficacy of individuals who have been discharged from hospital into the community, and their experiences of integration into their wider community.

You will be asked to complete a questionnaire designed to look at your self-efficacy, experience and how well you have integrated into the community since discharge. However, this is not a test and you should be able to reply freely and honestly. The questionnaire should take no longer than 20 minutes to complete.

We are undertaking medical research of an investigational medicine for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, such as a loss of motivation and sociability. The study involves attending Kings College Hospital for 9 visits over a few months, and include having an MRI scan (a scanning procedure which does not involve radiation) as well as completing some computer tasks.

Cognitive training programmes and non-invasive brain stimulation techniques have each shown promise in research trials that treat symptoms of eating disorders. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of combining approach bias modification training (ABM) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to treat symptoms of Binge Eating Disorder.

What’s involved?

• All participants will complete 3 assessment sessions across 7 weeks, comprised of an in-person visit (75 minutes) and online questionnaires to complete at home.
• Participants in the intervention groups will attend 6 sessions of combined cognitive training and tDCS across 3 weeks.

All parts of this study will be conducted at the IoPPN in Denmark Hill, except for the screening phone call.

Positive mental health plays a role in your physical health as much as it does in your well-being. The aim of this study is to assess what impact a brief psychological intervention has on stress levels as well as physical health markers associated with type 2 diabetes (such as fatigue, aches and pains). Please note that you do not need to be at risk of developing type 2 diabetes to take part.

This project aims to understand the role of the immune system, specifically cytokines, in anorexia nervosa. Our brain and behaviour are influenced by the immune system. Cytokines are important messenger molecules in the immune system. They can be measured in the blood and can tell us a lot about inflammation in the body. Research has shown that individuals with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa tend to have elevated levels of certain cytokines in their blood.

We want to measure a range of cytokines to find out if the level of cytokines in individuals with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa are related to certain clinical characteristics, like illness duration and symptom severity. The study will involve a screening phone call and, if you are eligible, a visit to the Institute of Psychology and King's College London (London, SE5 8AF).

The 'iCare for Myself' research study is an experimental 10-day intervention with participants assigned in an intervention and a control group involving monitoring of smartphone use, use of mindfulness and focusing exercises and mood tracking. Participants will need to conduct two online assessments of a 20-25 minute duration - at the beginning and at the end of the intervention - and monitor on a daily basis their smartphone use. This is a study where you may find out some interesting things about your social media and smartphone use and potentially develop some monitoring and self-care skills. 

Smartphone distractibility has been associated with lower academic/work performance and stress. Distractibility relates to a state of micro-disengagements from a primary task due to smartphone use. Use of smartphones has been associated with experience of loss of attentional focus from the primary task. There is currently no comprehensive measure of distractibility caused by smartphone use. This study aims to validate a recently designed measure of smartphone distractibility.

This study conducted at the University of Cambridge Department of Psychiatry is looking for individuals with depression who have evidence of low-grade inflammation. Inflammation levels will be confirmed by a blood test. The study involves up to six visits/assessments.

If you are eligible, you receive one dose of an anti-inflammatory drug or placebo (dummy drug), given by an intravenous infusion (directly into the vein). In addition, taking part in the study involves completing questionnaires about your depressive symptoms, cognitive tests, and providing blood samples.

This study aims to help us gain a better understanding of why some people feel anxious in social situations.

If you take part in this study you will be asked to complete an online video-based computer activity, a short word activity and some questionnaires. This study can be completed online at home using a desktop computer or laptop device. The study takes approximately 75 minutes to complete.

The IDEA Project is a new study funded by MQ: Transforming Mental Health and based at King's College London aiming to gather opinions from a variety of different people about the early identification and prevention of adolescent depression in the UK.

As part of this, we want to invite parents and caregivers of teenagers (aged 12-16) both with and without depression to take part in a small focus group discussion at Waterloo, South East London. The focus groups will last for approximately 2 hours and refreshments will be provided. We are hoping to hold them over February and March, at a variety of times during the day, which can be flexible depending on your availability. 

The Improving the Health of Young People (HYPE) project is an online recruitment, risk assessment, and resource platform for young people (aged 16+) aimed at improving the understanding of problems affecting young people's health, increasing their involvement in research as well as signposting to online and community health related resources. It aims to empower individuals within their neighbourhoods and communities by providing an environment to voice their opinions and contribute to a discussion on health inequalities; and work towards reducing these inequalities.

The HYPE project is looking for participants to take part in a (approximately) 30 minute online survey about their physical and mental health. Further information about the study can be found on HYPE's website (see below).

Mental health conditions have a significant impact on individuals, society and the economy. The EMHeP project is looking to analyse the efficiency, cost and quality of mental health care provision.

The study is looking for participants to take an online survey to help choose which aspects of care quality are the most important for mental health service provision. The survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.

This research project is carrying out a series of studies to investigate different memory processes and how they work, and sometimes don't work, in people with anxiety and depression. They know that the way people with depression and anxiety remember things can be different to how other people remember things, and to how they themselves remember things when they are not feeling depressed and anxious. They therefore want to find out more about these processes so that we can find ways to change them in order to help people suffering from depression and anxiety to feel better. The studies look at memory for words and pictures and the way people remember personal events in their lives. A special focus of the studies is to look at memory for emotional material. They would like to invite you to take part.

In childhood, did you sometimes act in a way that was not typical for your gender?

This study is looking for participants to find out about their experiences of being gender non-conforming in childhood, how people reacted to this, and whether their  experiences had any impact on their psychological wellbeing.

The study is aiming to find out more about what factors protected or led to difficulties for participants in developing mental health difficulties.

The study will consist of an online screening survey, with selected participants taking part in a 45-90 minute interview in person at King's College, Denmark Hill or over the phone.

We are a group of psychologists at Trinity College Dublin. We are conducting a study that aims to test if we can predict depressive episodes before they happen by studying how networks of symptoms change as a person approaches the start of an episode. We are aiming to do this using patterns of Twitter use and the kind of language used in Tweets.

Participants will fill out a short questionnaire regarding their current depressive symptoms, basic demographic information (e.g. age, gender) and any depressive episodes that may have occurred within the past year. They will also be asked to download their Tweets from Twitter and then send them to us using a secure link.

Have you used the internet to find information about your therapist? Have you thought about this but not done so? Or has 'Googling' your therapist never crossed your mind?

This team of researchers would like to understand more about 'Therapist Googling', which involves intentionally or accidentally using any internet site (such as social media), to find information about your therapist.

If you are an adult who has had therapy with a Psychological Professional, they would like to hear about your experiences, regardless of whether or not you have ever 'Googled' your therapist. 

Researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London are conducting a study into economic decision-making in autism. This study involves three computer-based tasks: two economic decision-making games (you will make decisions for yourself, and on behalf of two previous participants), and one block of personality questionnaires. This will take around 45 minutes. 

This randomised controlled feasibility study will evaluate two different types of attention training, the goal of which is to help improve eating habits in people who are overweight or have obesity. One is a food-related computerised attention training, the other is an  active mindfulness-based intervention (MBI). There will also be a waiting list control group.

The study will involve:

• a telephone screening
• assessment sessions, including questionnaires and computer tasks
• 8 training sessions (once a week) in the researcher's lab in Denmark Hill, London
• daily 10 minute sessions in the participant's home for 8 weeks
• an online follow-up questionnaire