Our focus

We focus on the whole 'spectrum' of mood disorders, including major depression and bipolar depression.

Depression often occurs with other problems such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress and interpersonal difficulties. It may also occur with physical health problems such as heart disease, chronic pain, diabetes and cancer.

In our work we aim to understand the processes leading to depression and other mood disorders so that we can maximise the effectiveness of therapies, treatments and services available to people with mood disorders.

How we work

We work in three overlapping areas:

• Understanding Psychological Processes (‘Understanding’)
  We do basic research to help us understand the psychological processes causing a person to develop and maintain a mood disorder. We also do applied research to help us understand how psychological therapies work.
• Designing and Improving Therapies (‘Translation’)
  We use the best evidence available to develop psychological therapies that will help people to become well. We want to develop psychological therapies that reduce people’s distress improve people’s chances of staying well and improve people’s quality of life, both in the short- and long-term.
• Improving Access (‘Access’)
  We want to improve “access” to the best evidence, the best research findings, the best therapies and the best models of delivering therapy. Improving access includes giving the best possible training to health professionals who work with people experiencing mood disorders.

All our work is based on partnership among staff in the Mood Disorders Centre, people with experience of mood disorders, health professionals and health service providers.