Transforming scientific discoveries into implementable interventions

It was a great opportunity to meet with clinical and academic colleagues at the Neurodevelopmental Conditions Community of Practice meeting. We had some thoughtful and engaging conversations about how we can work together to develop research that reflects clinical priorities and can be translated into practice to make a real difference for children, young people, and their families accessing CAMHS. 

This meeting built on the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s work to develop a translational research strategy, initiated in 2023. We started by looking back on the plans so far, setting out the strategy’s long-term ambitions and its focus on improving mental health outcomes for children and young people.  

Four areas for strategic priority were agreed: Prevention, Therapeutics, Personalisation, and Barriers to Care – selected for their strong potential to drive meaningful change.  

Each strategic area is structured around three translational research stages: 

• Discovery – Understanding the causes, progression, and outcomes of neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. 
• Development – Designing and testing discovery-based interventions to prevent and treat child and adolescent mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions. 
• Implementation – Developing partnerships with schools, charities, community organisations, and national and international governmental bodies to support the effective implementation of interventions.  

Collaboration with other academic and clinical groups, along with sufficient resources, is essential to optimise research across each of these stages. 

Providing the glue linking these stages was the concept of the translational incubator

Multidisciplinary teams of researchers, clinicians and patients working on a particular problem at a particular stage of the translational cycle. For example, the first incubator will turn real-world clinical problems into clear research questions, then design studies to explore them. Another one will use the research findings to develop new or adapt existing interventions.   

Emotional dysregulation as a case study 

One of the most pressing challenges in child and adolescent mental health is emotional dysregulation (EDR)—a difficulty in managing emotional responses that often underpins a wide range of neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. It’s also one of the most common reasons young people seek support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. 

As part of our strategic discussions within the King’s Maudsley Partnership, emotional dysregulation emerged as a key area of focus—cutting across diagnostic boundaries and offering a promising opportunity for innovation in both research and clinical practice. A key part of this process will be the Neurodevelopmental Conditions Community of Practice, which will help bring the strategy to life. 

This led to a central question posed to the Community of Practice: 

How can precision science methods be used to better understand emotion dysregulation in neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions, and this understanding be applied to better target existing and new interventions? 

Initial ideas include: 

• Understanding the diversity of emotional dysregulation profiles within clinical populations. 
• Identifying sub-groups with distinct emotional regulation patterns and explore how these vary across different diagnostic groups. 
• Understanding the genetic, environmental, and neurocognitive factors that shape these profiles. 
• Using these insights to refine existing interventions or develop new, transdiagnostic approaches that are more targeted and effective. 

We had strong engagement from the Community of Practice about the idea of establishing an incubator working group to support the development of the proposed research in emotional dysregulation, with Dr Asilay Seker (Clinical Research Fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) chairing. It would be great to keep the momentum going, so if you’re interested in getting involved, whether you’re a clinician, researcher, young person or parent/carer with lived experience, or from a partner organisation, please do get in touch at KMPCYP@slam.nhs.uk. 

Credit: Dr Amanda Bye, Dr Asilay Seker & Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke