Leading research

Advance Choice Documents (ACDs)

About the project

This project is led by Professor Tania Gergel and colleagues at King’s College London.

Advance Choice Documents (ACDs) are written or spoken records that allow people with fluctuating mental illness to say in advance, when they are well, what treatment they would like if they become ill. 

What are we doing now?

The Bipolar UK research team has been busy working with colleagues at the Department of Health and Social Care to help deliver ACDs as a central element of the new Mental Health Bill.

In summer 2025, we appointed a social entrepreneur to help deliver the next phase of the project, which is to take the ACD website and build a social enterprise so that it can continue to run.

ASCEnD Study

About the project

This study is being run with the support of the NHS and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), working in partnership with Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University.

Very little is known about using antidepressants in patients living with bipolar depression. In this study, we will use a combination of an antidepressant (sertraline) and an antipsychotic (aripiprazole) and compare this combination with an antipsychotic medication called quetiapine.

All three medications are already used in the NHS, but we want to find out if using a sertraline/aripiprazole combination will be beneficial in reducing depressive symptoms in people with bipolar disorder.

  • The Bipolar UK research team is currently working closely with the ASCEnD study team to boost recruitment to the trial.

  • The ASCEnD study team is actively recruiting across several health trusts in England. 

    Find details here

B-SPRINT (Brain and Genomics Hub)

About the project

This study is led by Professors James Walters and Neil Harrison, alongside the research team at Bipolar UK as core members of the wider research team

The Brain and Genomics Hub is looking to better understand bipolar, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder by mapping various biological, clinical, and social factors so that we can identify better treatments and management of these conditions.

  • The Bipolar UK research team is responsible for the lived experience innovation of the project. We have brought together a group of researchers with dual expertise in research and personal lived experience of the mental health conditions the study is looking at.

    As well as co-organising the launch event for the Hub, we are currently working on several papers with the help of our specialist Lived Experience Advisory Panel. We will share these with the community when they are published.

  • The B-SPRINT (Brain and Genomics Hub) is currently open and active in recruitment. 

    Find details here

Culturally Adapted Psychoeducation for bipolar (CaPE)

About the project

This project is being led by Dr Dung Jidong at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust.

The CaPE study is mostly interested in bridging the gap between the Black British, Black-African, Caribbean, or mixed-race African/Caribbean community living with bipolar and looking to create more culturally sensitive interventions to reduce hospital admission.

  • As the project is in its early stages, the Bipolar UK research team is currently working with the CaPE team to set up routes for recruitment.

  • Recruitment details will be posted here in autumn/winter 2025.

Home-based transcranial direct current stimulation in bipolar depression (BDEP)

About the project

This project is being led by Professor Cynthia Fu at the King’s College London (KCL) and Professor Allan Young at Imperial College London (ICL).

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive treatment where someone wears a headset that gives small electronic pulses to the brain. It has been used to treat unipolar depression and there is evidence that it can be effective in reducing symptoms of depression.

BDEP is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of home-based tDCS on bipolar depression. The team is also monitoring whether tDCS can help to lessen anxiety over time.

  • The trial is currently being set up. The Bipolar UK research team is working behind the scenes with colleagues at KCL and ICL to ensure that the study will run smoothly.

  • Recruitment details will be posted here in autumn/winter 2025.

Partners of Parents with Bipolar (PPB)

About the project

This study is being run by Professor Steven Jones and colleagues at the University of Lancaster.

This PPB study is related to the Integrated Bipolar Parenting Intervention (IBPI) study which we’re supporting. It is mostly concerned with understanding the unique support needs of carers of parents with bipolar which are often neglected.

  • The Bipolar UK research team is a co-investigator of this project with the responsibility of managing its progression. Our focus is to bring gold-standard coproduction and lived experience involvement.

  • Recruitment details will be posted here in autumn/winter 2025.