Community pHarmaciEs Mood Intervention STudy (CHEMIST)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Community pHarmaciEs Mood Intervention STudy (CHEMIST). Feasibility and Pilot Study
IRAS ID
195211
Contact name
David Ekers
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
About 30% of the UK population have long term physical health problems and many of those people also suffer from depression which can worsen health outcomes, quality of life and double healthcare costs. Mild/Sub-Threshold depression often goes undetected/untreated despite the fact it also can worsen a person’s health and functioning and is a major risk factor for depression. We recently tested a treatment, called collaborative care, in older adults with sub-threshold depression in a large UK study. It reduced depression symptoms at 4 and 12 months and nearly halved progression to major depression, compared to usual primary care. The intervention was delivered by people with no professional qualification, but who were trained/supported by experts. It included a psychological self-help treatment called behavioural activation supported by structured phone/face to face sessions and regular use of low mood measurement. This study was not aimed at those with health problems and depression, however 80% of those recruited had that combination of problems.
We think that community pharmacies may provide an excellent setting for such an intervention for people with health problems and sub threshold depression. They are regularly in contact with people with long term health problems, and are well placed in local communities. A large study is needed to establish if the intervention can be as effective in this ‘public health’ setting. However at this point we need to investigate whether a larger definitive study would be possible. To do this we will (in ‘phase one’) recruit 20-30 participants and train a small number of pharmacy staff to deliver the treatment. We will refine our research methods and the intervention by interviewing participants and staff and observing recruitment, intervention acceptance and data completion rates.
In ‘Phase two’ we will run a randomised controlled trial ‘in miniature’ recruiting 100 people to test our intervention against ‘usual care’. We will observe how many people we need to approach, screen and asses to recruit this number and how well we can treat people and collect the follow up data we need. From this we will be able to decide if and how to run a larger study to fully test the effectiveness of the approach.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NE/0327
Date of REC Opinion
18 Nov 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion