Research
Participants in the North West required! Psychiatric diagnosis: Are dimensions more appropriate than categories? This research aims to look at whether psychiatric diagnoses are really separate from each other, or whether people with different diagnoses share symptoms and experiences along dimensions. If you experience difficulties with anxiety, including panic, phobias, agoraphobia, OCD, and generalised anxiety, or low mood, I would really like to interview you about your symptoms. The interview takes between 30 and 60 minutes, and could be carried out at a convenient location for you, such as your home or an NHS facility near you. I can also pay your travel expenses, if you have any. This research will form part of my doctorate in clinical psychology, and has been approved by the University of Liverpool research committee. It is hoped that the findings will be published to add to the literature that will improve diagnostic practices in the future. I would be happy to answer any queries about the research – contacting me does not mean that you have to take part. I am happy travel to meet people within the North West region. However, if you live further away than this, but would like to take part, please call me and we can try to arrange something convenient! Thank you! Gemma Contact: Gemma Parker Telephone: 0151 794 5534 or 0151 794 5530 Email: gparker@liv.ac.uk Evaluating the Oxford Questionnaire of Emotional Side-effects of Antidepressants (OQESA)
We are a team of researchers at the University of Oxford’s Psychiatry Department. We are interested in emotional side effects of taking antidepressant medication.
We have been finding out more about people’s experiences of emotional side effects as a result of taking an antidepressant, and from our findings we have now devised a new questionnaire which we hope will measure these effects.
Our current study therefore aims to test and validate our new questionnaire, and we are eagerly recruiting participants to take part.
|
Are you:
|
1 over 18yrs? 1 living in the United Kingdom? 1 fluent in spoken / written English? 2 taking an antidepressant regularly, for ANY reason? 3 would you be willing to complete our questionnaire 3 times on 3 separate occasions over 4 weeks? If you are interested in finding out more about this study, have any questions or queries, or if you think you might like to take part, please contact the research team on: Tel: (01865) 223 791 Email: SideEffectsStudy@psych.ox.ac.uk
Evaluating the Oxford Questionnaire of Emotional Side-effects of Antidepressants (OQESA) Approved by Oxfordshire Research Ethics Committee C, study number 07/H0606/117 INFORMATION SHEET FOR POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS (Version 2, 19th September 2007) You are being invited to take part in a research study. Before you decide whether to take part, you need to understand why the research is being done and what it involves. Please take time to consider this information, and talk to others about it if you wish. Please ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information – our contact details are listed at the end. What is the purpose of the study? Antidepressants, like all medicines acting on the nervous system, are associated with various side effects. We would like to find out more about possible ‘psychological’ or ‘emotional’ side-effects. Some people who take antidepressants report that, although their medication may help their illness, their emotional experience of day to day life is affected in an unhelpful way. We have interviewed about 40 people who have had such side-effects. We have used their accounts of their experiences to build a new questionnaire, the OQESA. We hope that this questionnaire will be able to measure these side-effects. This research study will help us to find out. Why have I been chosen? You have been chosen because you have been prescribed an antidepressant. We hope to recruit about 250 people to take part in this study. Some of these people will have or have had depression, but many will be taking antidepressants for other reasons. Do I have to take part? No - it is entirely up to you to decide whether or not to take part. You remain free to withdraw at any time and without giving a reason. A decision not to take part, or a subsequent decision to withdraw at any time throughout the study, will not affect your clinical care in any way. What will happen to me if I take part? This study involves completing a questionnaire at 3 different times, during a 4 week period. It is important that the questionnaire is completed three times by each participant, because this repetition allows us to see whether the questionnaire works properly. The study does NOT involve taking any new drugs or medicines, or any changes to your treatment. If you are interested in taking part, we would talk on the phone for about 5 minutes (or ‘talk’ by email if you prefer), to make sure that you are suitable for the study and are willing to take part. The first questionnaire … a) checks that you agree to take part (consent); b) asks your date of birth, your gender, and your postcode; c) asks about your current medicines; d) asks about symptoms of depression; and e) asks you to complete the emotional side-effects questionnaire (called the OQESA). The first questionnaire should take less than 30 minutes to complete. We ask you to complete the second questionnaire one week later. This a) asks about your current medicines, and b) asks you to complete the OQESA. The second questionnaire should take about 20 minutes to complete. We ask you to complete the final questionnaire three weeks later. Again, this a) asks about your current medicines, and b) asks you to complete the OQESA. The third questionnaire should take about 20 minutes to complete. How do I complete the questionnaires? We would prefer you to complete the questionnaires ‘online’, but, if this is not convenient for you, we can send paper copies to you in the post with a Freepost envelope. Completing online questionnaires: We would email you a password and a clickable weblink that would take you to the questionnaires online. Full instructions would be displayed on screen throughout, but if you had any problems, you could contact a member of the research team for support, via email or telephone. All the data provided online is ‘encrypted’ at a very high level, similar to online banking. Therefore, any responses you give are highly confidential, being kept under the strictest security. Completing paper questionnaires: We would send you the questionnaires and full instructions in the post, and would include Freepost envelopes for you to return them to us. If you were unsure about any aspect of the questionnaires, you would be able to contact a member of the research team for support, via email or telephone. Reminders to complete questionnaires: It is really important to us that the questionnaires are fully completed at the correct times. We would like to remind you, by email or phone (your preference), to complete (and return) the questionnaire. What about expenses? We are very grateful to participants. For their time and trouble, we will send a £15 book token to each person who completes the three questionnaires. What are the disadvantages of taking part? There are two possible disadvantages of taking part. These are: a) the time that it will take, and b) the small possibility that you might become upset whilst answering questions about your emotional wellbeing. If you do become upset, please do contact us (our contact details are at the end of this sheet), and we will be pleased to support and advise. What are the possible benefits of taking part? There are no clear benefits to you associated with taking part. However, we believe that this research will help us to understand an important clinical problem. If you agree to take part, you will be helping our research, and helping to advance our knowledge and understanding. This may, of course, help other people in the future. What if there is a problem? Given the nature of this study, it is highly unlikely that you will suffer harm by taking part. However, if you are harmed by participation in the study, you may have grounds for legal action for compensation against the University of Oxford. Will my taking part in the study be kept confidential? Yes. All information which is collected about you during this research will be kept strictly confidential. We are using a private company called Smart Survey (http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/) to help us with this study. They are experts at online (web) surveys, and have been employed by many national organisations, including the NHS, to conduct public surveys in a confidential way. All data collected online is generated and stored under high security. Any paper questionnaires will be identifiable by an ID number rather than by name, and will be securely stored in a locked filing cabinet. All personal details will be kept fully confidential, and will be stored separately from any responses you provide from the questionnaires. We will keep all electronic data such as data spreadsheets secure by using password protection of files and computers. The University maintains a very high standard of protection against hackers. Study data will be accessible only to those University staff directly involved in this study (Dr Jonathan Price, Ms Victoria Cole, Professor Guy Goodwin, Professor Crispin Jenkinson, and Dr Helen Doll) or responsible for monitoring its conduct. What happens to the results of the research? The results of the research will be published in a medical research journal, so that knowledge in the medical community can be advanced. If you would like a copy of any research publications arising from the study, or a simpler, jargon-free, summary of the findings, please do let us know. Who is organising and funding the research? The research is being conducted entirely by the University of Oxford, who are the study ‘sponsors’. The University retains all academic freedoms relating to the conduct of this research, including the right to independent publication of its results. The research is funded by Servier, a pharmaceutical company. No researcher or NHS worker will receive any payment as a result of your participation in this study. Has the study received ethical approval? This study has been approved for conduct in the NHS by the Oxfordshire Research Ethics Committee C. HOW TO CONTACT US If you have any queries or concerns, or if you decide you would like to take part in the study, please do contact us – we would be pleased to hear from you. Victoria Cole (Research Assistant) Dr Jonathan Price (Principal Investigator) Address: University Department of Psychiatry, The Warneford Hospital, Headington, Oxford OX3 7JX Email: victoria.cole@psych.ox.ac.uk Phone: 01865 223791 (study answerphone)
|
