e-Participate

A study led by Professor David Osborn in the University College London (UCL) Division of Psychiatry has been published in the Lancet Psychiatry. The study developed a new intervention to reduce cardiovascular disease risk factors for people with severe mental illnesses (SMI), and tested this new intervention against routine General Practice care.

People with SMI, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or psychosis, have a well-established increased risk of morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease. Although the study found similar cardiovascular outcomes in both the Primrose intervention group and routine care, the new intervention was associated with fewer psychiatric admissions and therefore lower costs.

Evidence suggests that large reductions in blood pressure, and too many drug prescriptions may be associated with an increase in serious falls and death in the elderly.

Assessing the safety of reducing medication in older patients (≥80 years) with controlled systolic blood pressure (<150 mmHg), who are receiving ≥2 antihypertensive medications. Systolic blood pressure control at three month follow-up will be compared between those randomly allocated to either removal of one blood pressure medication or usual care.

ATTACK is a pragmatic multicentre open-label randomised controlled trial to determine whether the addition of low-dose aspirin to usual care reduces the risk of major vascular events in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who do not have pre-existing cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Are you interested in dementia related research? Would you know of anyone who would like to participate in dementia related research or be made aware of opportunities they may wish to know more about?

Join Dementia Research (JDR) (www.joindementiaresearch.nihr.ac.uk) is a national initiative that forms part of the Governments 2020 Dementia Strategy. The initiative was launched in February 2015 and provides the platform for members of public to register their interest in volunteering to take part in dementia related research. It gives patients and their carers the opportunity to be involved in studies which they may not have been made aware of.

Chronic Headache Education and Self-management Study (CHESS) is a multi-centre, randomised controlled trial evaluating an education and self-management support programme for people living with chronic headaches (headache ≥ 15 days/month for ≥ 3 months).

This interactive day is a must for students, GPs, registrars, researchers, and allied health professionals. The event aims to inspire, translate and innovate primary care research by showing current research.

Over one million people have taken part in Primary Care research nationally in the past 10 years, and 175,000 of these were recruited in GP practices in the West Midlands. The contribution of these practices is significantly helping the NHS to gather evidence about new treatments and services in order to improve patient care