Mood Disorders CARE Clinic
Clinical Assessments & Research in Edinburgh
Mood disorders
In Scotland, there are around 10,000 people living with bipolar (Bipolar Scotland, 2026) and 1 in 10 people will experience depression in their lifetime (Scottish Health Survey, 2024). At Edinburgh’s CARE Clinic we are passionate about improving the quality of our patients’ lives.
We achieve this by undertaking a broad range of clinical research studies to improve our knowledge, understanding and treatment of bipolar and depression.
What is clinical research?
'Clinical research' is any research study which involves human volunteers. These studies can help us understand mental health conditions better or may help us to find different ways to improve symptoms.
Hover on the boxes below to find out about the different types of clinical research studies we undertake:
Trials involving new medicines
We often take part in research studies which involve new medicines. These medicines have already been checked for safety and so the study can help us to understand if they improve patients’ symptoms.
Observational trials
In some studies, we want to monitor symptoms over weeks or months and so in these types of studies you might be completing questionnaires regularly. This helps us to track symptoms over time and can help us understand your condition better.
Trials involving new devices
​Sometimes, instead of a new medicine, we take part in studies which test a new device. This might be a device that you use in the clinic or it might be one you can take home with you. These devices have already been checked for safety and so the study is about understanding if they improve patients’ symptoms.
Trials involving new medicines
We often take part in research studies which involve new medicines. These medicines have already been checked for safety and so the study can help us to understand if they improve patients’ symptoms.
What happens on a research study?
Why is clinical research important?
The biggest advances in how we understand and treat mood disorders have been made through clinical research. For example, through clinical research studies conducted in the 1950s through to the 1970s, lithium was shown to help people with bipolar symptoms and it is still used to treat people to this day (Shorter, 2009). Therefore, clinical research is an important way to improve our understanding of mood disorders; without it we will be unable to find new and different ways of treating bipolar and depression leaving patients with fewer treatment options.
Is clinical research safe?
Before clinical research studies start, they are checked by the Medicines for Health Research Authority (MHRA), a Research Ethics Committee (REC) and Research and Development (R&D) teams who are based in the health board. The MHRA checks that the medicines or devices to be tested are safe, and the REC makes sure that your rights and wellbeing are protected. When the study takes place in the NHS, a further check is done to make sure that the local team who will do the research has everything in place for the study to run safely.
What happens if I don't want to take part?
If you decide that you do not want to participate in a research study, this will not impact your care in any way. We may ask you if you would like to remain on our database to be contacted about any future studies. If you do not want this, please let us know and we will remove your name and contact information.
If you don’t want to participate in clinical research but you would still like to be involved in research in other ways, there may be opportunities for you to become involved in our Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement group. Please ask a member of the team and they can discuss this with you.