There is an urgent need for new treatments in psychiatry and neurology. Current treatments are often ineffective or poorly tolerated by patients and there is a lack of investment by companies in this area.
Experimental medicine is an approach that can de-risk and optimise the development of new therapies, helping to lower some of the barriers to investing into research and the development of new treatments. It can provide early evidence that treatments are acting in the intended way, identify patient groups who are most likely to benefit and define what represents a successful treatment. This ensures research focuses on the best measures in the right people and at the right dose.
The measurements and measures used in experimental medicine studies can include behaviour, sleep, cognition, brain imaging and neurophysiology. We are implementing these, validating novel techniques and evaluating participant perspectives for these measures, which are all applicable across multiple disorders.
Sustained investment in our BRC and NIHR King’s Clinical Research Facility has contributed to the expansion of our portfolio of experimental medicine studies and early phase trials. In building our capabilities and our relationships with industry we are increasing the probability that future clinical trials will be more successful in delivering new treatments.
As part of our capacity building we are collaborating with NIHR Oxford Health BRC to offer training to prepare researchers embarking on careers in translational and experimental medicine approaches to psychiatric and neurological conditions.
