Summary
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) invites you to take part in their latest clinical research studies.
Plus, an update on one of their funding schemes.
These are the latest clinical research offers available to primary care.
- DURATION UTI – This research aims to find the shortest antibiotic treatment duration needed to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women (aged 18 years or above) effectively. The study team will also look at the impact of each antibiotic and treatment duration on antibiotic resistance in bacteria found in the patient’s urine.
- RESTED – Depression is a very common and impairing condition. Current treatments include antidepressant medication and psychological therapy. Both can be effective, but more than one third of people do not benefit from these treatments. There are reasons to think that poor sleep is an important contributor to depression, and that if sleep could be improved, depression would improve too. This study will provide clear evidence on whether improving sleep quality improves depression with the hope that this may lead to new ways of treating depression in the future and provide important knowledge on how sleep and mental health are connected. The intervention being tested is called Sleep Restriction Therapy, which is a behavioural intervention involving a detailed review of the patient’s sleep pattern and support over six weeks to implement a new tailored sleep schedule. This treatment has already been shown to work well for people with insomnia in large randomised control trials.
- PAX-D – This study is comparing a medicine called pramipexole with placebo for Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) ie. depression that has not responded to current antidepressant medicines and/or psychological therapies. TRD affects between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of people taking treatment for depression and is both a leading cause of suffering to individuals and costly to society in terms of, for example, working days lost. There is some evidence that pramipexole may be effective for TRD when added to current antidepressant treatment but more rigorous evaluation is needed.
Listen to colleagues from Ashton Medical Group speaking about the importance of research in primary care, in a podcast with Tameside Radio.
A full list of all available studies in general practice can be found on the NIHR Primary Care Research Hub.
You can get in touch by emailing your details along with the name of the study to: researchsupport.crngm@nihr.ac.uk
Research Site Initiative Funding Scheme
Research Site Initiative (RSI) is a locally funded scheme that provides practices with funding to establish and maintain research infrastructure, and deliver NIHR portfolio research.
RSI funding is in addition to the income that practices receive for taking part in research studies.
The CRN GM will be transitioning this year and on 1 October, the Regional Research Delivery Network (RRDN) will come into effect. This means that for the financial year 2024/25, the RSI Key performance indicators will be split across two organisations, with the first six months being the CRN GM (1 April 2024 – 30 September 2024).
From the 1 October it will be the RRDN.
Any practices currently on the RSI scheme will need to reapply on the scheme and should submit their application by Friday 15 March.
Any new practices who are interested in applying for the first time will need to submit their application by Friday 15 March.
Any applications received after the 15 March will not be considered at this time. Application forms can be found on the NIHR CRN GM Primary Care Research Hub.
