Improving Psychological interventions for Mood Disorder: A translational research approach. (360G-Wellcome-085965_Z_08_Z)

The next generation of psychological treatments must directly target improved outcomes and increased availability for difficult-to-treat psychiatric patients. To accomplish this, a better understanding is required of the cognitive and emotional mechanisms causally involved in the onset and maintenance of mood disorders and of the mechanisms of change associated with effective treatments. Further, innovative and effective ways to deliver cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) to mood disorders need to be established. Accomplishing these objectives will require infrastructure support for collaborative research teams that have established experience in the testing, development, and integration of translational research findings. The Mood Disorders Centre (MDC) is uniquely positioned to be able to accomplish these aims: The MDC has an excellent track record in both experimental and clinical trial research in mood disorders, and has recently recruited international experts who bring experience in translational research paradigms and personality disorders. However, the MDC has outgrown its current facilities. This proposal will develop the MDC's internationally competitive leading-edge research through the provision of (1) a fit-for-purpose Biobehavioural and Virtual Reality Laboratory and (2) a dedicated and specialized Research Clinic. This infrastructure will support the following key objectives: (a) extending MDC research programmes investigating the mechanisms of dysfunctional and disordered affect by adding behavioural laboratory, psychophysiological, neural imaging, and virtual reality technologies to the portfolio of research methodologies, (b) the conduct of large-scale clinical trials to improve the efficacy and accessibility of psychological treatments, and (c) developing and testing novel treatments (e.g., cognitive bias modification, extinction and learning reminders).