The Sir Henry Wellcome Building for Mood Disorders Research

The Mood Disorders Centre (MDC) was established as a partnership between the University of Exeter and the NHS to address key priorities in understanding and treating depression including (a) improving the efficacy of psychological interventions; (b) reducing the high rates of relapse and recurrence; (c) finding ways to make effective interventions widely available and accessible, given the high lifetime prevalence rates of depression (10-20%) and the limited number of therapists. Its vision is to deliver world-class research that develops new understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying mood disorders, translates this knowledge into more efficacious psychological interventions, improves the accessibility of evidence-based treatments for depression, and provides innovative programmes that train the next generation of clinical researchers, clinical practitioners and leaders.

The Sir Henry Wellcome Building for Mood Disorders Research is the result of a £3.6 million Capital Award from the Wellcome Trust and is dedicated to the improvement of the understanding and treatment of mood disorders. This state-of-the art, fit-for-purpose built clinical research facility houses individual and group treatment rooms, with built-in audiovisual recording, plus office and meeting space for clinical research. The Capital Award has also renovated a significant part of the Washington Singer Building on the University of Exeter’s Streatham Campus including a new biobehavioural laboratory with virtual reality environments, multichannel EEG and peripheral physiology and eye tracking facilities. This new facility and the associated ongoing relationship with the Wellcome Trust consolidates the position of the Mood Disorders Centre and the University of Exeter as a UK and international leader in basic and translational clinical research to improve the psychological understanding of mood disorders and to develop and evaluate new psychosocial interventions.

Detailed access information is available on the AccessAble website.