A new patient-centred care pathway designed by patients, researchers and healthcare professionals could help reduce avoidable cancellations of knee and hip replacement surgery while providing better s...

Sleep may contain information to help us understand and potentially monitor some of the brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers from the University of Camerino, in collaboration...

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has awarded £3.3m to a study exploring the best way to manage pain for children who have had abdominal surgery. The Caterpillar Study is a ra...

An international study led by researchers from the UK, Norway and Sweden has found that antidepressant use during pregnancy may be associated with a small increase in the risk of preterm birth and a l...

Mental health practitioners need best practice resources to support conversations around online activity with young people. Guidance should support conversations that are both acceptable to young peop...

Healthcare providers are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to support clinical decision-making, especially in the fields of radiology and pathology. Many AI technologies perform well, ho...

Health outcomes can vary depending on a person’s ethnicity. For example, people from some ethnic minorities are more likely to die from COVID-19 and are at increased risk of developing complications. ...

In this edition: specialist children's weight services; trial participation for autistic adults; using AI to detect cancer; food security; sleep problems in dementia and much more

A childhood obesity prevention programme developed in Bradford’s madrasas could be adapted for use in Bristol, according to research supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Bristol. The Heal...

Mindfulness and mindful eating practices could help people eat less in controlled settings, according to a new systematic review and meta-analysis published in Clinical Psychology Review. Researchers ...

A new systematic review has found that UK interventions aimed at tackling food insecurity among children, families and pregnant women are limited in quality, scope and long-term impact. In addition, f...

Specialist NHS services for children and young people living with severe obesity need long-term investment, strong multidisciplinary teams and flexible support if they are to deliver lasting benefits,...

Autistic adults could be supported to start and continue taking an antidepressant or placebo medication within the context of a randomised controlled trial (RCT), according to new research supported b...

Researchers at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and University of Bristol worked together to complete the first systematic review of DNA methylation profile scores (MPSs) used in children and young pe...

Researchers supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Bristol have shown that artificial intelligence could help improve the early detection of head and neck cancer using saliva samples. Cruci...

We know that obesity is a risk factor for developing a variety of health conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. However, we do not fully understand why this is. Clinical trials ...

During knee replacement surgery, damaged sections of the knee are replaced with metal and plastic components. In unicompartmental knee replacement (also called partial knee replacement) only a portion...

Researchers from the UK collaborated with colleagues from the Netherlands to create an up-to-date inventory of shared-decision making (SDM) instruments. Their work is a robust instrument quality asses...

Blood carries oxygen and nutrients around the body. It also removes waste products from tissues and organs. This process is called perfusion. Cardiopulmonary bypass or a heart-lung machine is a machin...

There are many benefits to video recording surgical procedures. Recordings provide a lot of data that could be used to: Improve research Innovate Assess outcomes Ensure quality Educate All of which be...

Researchers in Bristol have shown how embedding rapid qualitative research into clinical trials can help overcome recruitment challenges and strengthen study delivery, according to a new paper publish...

In this blog, Jacqueline Miller writes about how child-friendly features were embedded in the Ci2i project from the start, the philosophical approaches that underpinned this work and the factors that ...

Psychiatric polypharmacy is when a person is prescribed two or more psychiatric medications at the same time. It is estimated this affects one in every two older adults who start taking an antidepress...

In this edition: Inflammation and mental health; Recommendations for feasibility trials; Stress hormone response in newborns; upcoming events; plus much more

In this blog Jody Salton, PhD candidate from our diet and physical activity (DPA) research theme, discusses using the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) Be Part of Research (BPOR...

Findings from a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism could pave the way for safer, more tailored post-operative care for newborns with congenital heart defects. The ...

This proof-of-concept randomized clinical trial identifies likely treatment-sensitive outcomes and effect size for systemic interleukin 6 inhibition in patients with difficult-to-treat depression

In this blog post, originally written for and published by the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Éimear Foley discusses new results from a pilot trial of anti-inflammatory treatment for depression. T...

Immunotherapy could be a promising new treatment option for patients with difficult-to-treat depression. This is a key finding from a University of Bristol-led pilot randomised controlled clinical tri...

Asthma is a very common lung condition. In the UK, 7.2 million people have asthma. This is about 8 in every 100 people. We know that there are some associations between asthma and mental health disord...

A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that the obesity-survival paradox may be misleading. For over 20 years, doctors have been puzzled by an apparent par...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations – episodes of worsening symptoms – are a leading cause of: Hospital admissions Premature death Winter pressures on the NHS The care currently...

YouTube video by NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Bristol

Patients and clinicians are invited to participate in a study to develop a ‘core outcome set’ for periprosthetic femoral fracture (PoPFF). PoPFF is where, after a hip or knee replacement, the thigh bo...

Extending vaccination opportunities, involving community members alongside healthcare professionals in communicating about vaccines, and providing financial incentives are among the most effective way...

Research from NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Bristol and Southmead Hospital suggests early studies assessing innovative invasive devices should: Embed qualitative observation and stakeholder intervi...

This project addresses a gap in adolescent and young adult mental health research. It will focus on the transitional age range of 18-24 as 75% of mental health conditions have already begun by the tim...

In this edition: improving missing data handling, womb transplant insights, unpicking the genetics of postoperative delirium; plus much more

The human body is designed to respond to stress in an automatic and instinctual way. This response is supposed to keep us safe by keeping us alert, motivated and ready to avoid danger. However, long-t...

A wound infusion catheter is a flexible tube used to deliver pain relief directly into the surgical site. It is usually inserted by a surgeon at the end of the procedure. Limited evidence suggests using wound infusion catheters in adults provides good pain relief after abdominal surgery. Wound infusion catheters are also used in children […]

To mark the World Health Organisation’s World Health Day on 7 April, we want to highlight the achievements of the HPRU EBS that help ensure science-led public health reaches more […]

We know that the neighbourhood people live or grow up in can affect their mental health. However, we don’t know if where someone lives is linked to their risk of developing the difficulties associated with a diagnosis of personality disorder.   People diagnosed with personality disorder experience differences in the way they think and feel. […]