Research Projects
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CompreHensive geriAtRician led MEdication Review (CHARMER)
CHARMER is a six-year (2020-2026) England-wide research project to develop and test an approach to increasing discussions with patients about stopping medicines that are no longer useful and could be harmful. CHARMER has been tested on wards that specialise in the care of older people.
This is important since as we get older, our bodies are less able to handle some medicines. Medicines that were once effective and safe may no longer work as well but could still cause side effects. Our research shows that most older people want their medicines reviewed while in hospital.
We have researched the reasons why a medicine review like this doesn’t always happen and designed an approach to support hospital doctors and pharmacists to increase discussions with older patients about stopping medicines that are no longer useful and could be harmful.
We have trialled the CHARMER approach in a number of hospitals to see how well it works.
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Identification of Medication Adherence Barriers Questionnaire intervention (IMAB-Qi)
We’re running a research project to explore how a new intervention called IMAB-Qi can help people work with their healthcare professionals to overcome challenges they have to taking their medicines as prescribed. The IMAB-Qi will be used in medication review appointments to better understand what might get in the way of taking medicines as prescribed. The goal is to find practical, personalised solutions to help people take their medicines as prescribed, making those conversations more helpful and supportive.
Many people find it difficult to take their medicines regularly. It’s thought that around 5 out of every 10 people with long-term health conditions don’t take their medicines exactly as prescribed. This can lead to people feeling worse, wasting the medicines, or medicines being prescribed that might not have been needed.
The IMAB-Qi was created to help patients and healthcare professionals talk about what might make it hard to take medicines as prescribed. It was carefully developed using research papers, expert knowledge, and group discussions with people who take regular medicines—so it reflects real-life experiences and concerns.
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Incubator for Pharmacy Professionals
The Incubator is a three-year project launched in 2024, with the aim of understand and address the limited involvement of pharmacy professionals, including pharmacists and pharmacy technicians across all sectors of pharmacy, in healthcare research. The Incubator will develop strategies to address the research deficit and introduce these strategies across the UK.
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Toolkit for Chronic Opiod Use in Non-Cancer Pain
The UEA Health and Social Care Partners' Medicines Optimisation Group East Anglia (MOGEA) has been supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care East of England to develop an approach to opioid tapering.
We have combined research evidence with experiences of health organisations and individual practitioners and developed a service specification that can be translated across regions.
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Antidepressant Deprescribing Toolkit
1-in-5 people take antidepressants for mental health problems like anxiety or depression. Most people only need antidepressants for 6 to 12 months after feeling better. There’s more chance of side effects the longer someone takes antidepressants.
Unfortunately, most people stay on antidepressants longer than they need. This is especially true for certain groups like people living in poorer areas and LGBTQ+ people. This is because it is harder for them to get other mental health support like talking therapies.
Research shows that for people who get better from their mental health problem, and so stop their antidepressant, the chance of their mental health problem coming back is no different to people who continue taking their antidepressant. Most people who take antidepressants for a long time want to stop but don’t get enough help. Our research found that healthcare professionals don’t have what they need to help people stop antidepressants.
Aim
To create a support package of things that healthcare professionals in GP surgeries need to:
Stop antidepressants for people who want to stop
Make sure people get mental health support while stopping their antidepressants
Check on the wellbeing of people whilst stopping their antidepressants
We have worked with 6 Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) members to design this research. They will carry on working with us to do the research. Our PPI members have personal experience of taking and stopping antidepressants. They will make sure that the support package we create is acceptable to patients and doesn’t disadvantage any groups.
We’ll create the support package in 3 steps using theory about changing behaviour:
Step 1: Look at past research to find out what has been tried to support healthcare professionals to help people stop antidepressants.
Step 2: Ask healthcare professionals, people who have taken antidepressants and mental health charity workers what they think about the things that have already been tried. Then we will ask them for new ideas of things that might help.
Step 3: Ask the people from Step 2 to pick the best things for supporting healthcare professionals to help people stop antidepressants. They will then design these into the support package.
We’ll work with our PPI group and other advisors to decide who to share our findings with and how to share them. Examples are social media posts, newsletters and short videos. We’ll also run 3 events with the mental health charity Mind, to get the public’s opinion on the research.
We’ll apply for funding to test the support package in GP surgeries across England to see if more people stop their antidepressants in a way that suits patients, healthcare professionals and the NHS.
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