Psychology PhD Studentship
CENTER-TBI: Multi-dimensional outcome assessment after traumatic brain injury.
Applications are invited for a funded full-time PhD Studentship based in the Psychology Division.
Funding comes from a major longitudinal study of traumatic brain injury (TBI) CENTER-TBI
(https://www.center-tbi.eu) which has been awarded €30m under the FP7 programme. The project
uses a comparative effectiveness research design to examine the benefits of existing and new TBI
treatments and will recruit approximately 5400 patients from 80 European centres. Data collection
will be in 3 strata, differentiated by patient care path:
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Emergency room (ER) and discharged (ER Stratum).
Admitted to hospital, but not intensive care (Admission Stratum).
Admitted to ICU (ICU Stratum).
The University of Stirling is a partner in the CENTER-TBI project, responsible for multidimensional
outcomes after TBI. Domains assessed as part of the study include:
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Functional outcome (Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended).
Cognition (RAVLT, Trail Making Test, and CANTAB).
Emotional adjustment (PHQ-9, GAD-7, and PCL-5).
Health-related quality of life (SF-36, QOLIBRI).
The outcome work package will compare approaches to assessment of functional outcomes and
study longitudinal changes in the domains that are assessed.
The appointee will work alongside project staff with local data collection being undertaken in
collaboration with Critical Care Medicine at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh. The PhD
project will specifically involve work in the following two areas:
(1) Collecting information concerning functional outcome on the Glasgow Outcome Scale –
Extended (GOSE), which is a standard method of assessing outcome in TBI clinical trials, but the
optimum method of collecting this information is uncertain. GOSE can be used as a clinician rating
scale, either the original structured interview, or a narrative version proposed by Lu et al. (2010).
Alternatively, GOSE can be a patient-reported outcome questionnaire. The contrast between
clinician-reported outcomes and patient-reported outcomes will be studied in around 75 cases.
(2) Longitudinal data collection at 3, 6 and 12 months after injury in patients recruited locally to the
Admission and ICU groups. Various options exist for specialization within this area of the study. A
specific focus is on the development and time-course of response shift in health-related quality of
life assessment. It is planned to compare current quality of life with retrospective rating before
injury, and to examine changes over time in domains considered important for quality of life.
Findings will feed into the main CENTER-TBI study and inform the collection of outcomes as a whole.
There will be the opportunity to travel and present work to an international audience, and potential
for collaboration with researchers at European centres .
Psychology at Stirling has an international reputation for research, and a strong postgraduate
community, with excellent facilities for postgraduate students, including allocated office space,
equipment and conference funding: www.psychology.stir.ac.uk
The award, which will be tenable for 12 months in the first instance, will be £13,863 in 2014/15.
Tuition fees will be met by the University at the home /EU rate. If the appointee is from overseas,
the difference between the home and overseas fee must be met from other sources. Subject to
satisfactory progress, the studentship will be renewed for a second year and thereafter for a third
year.
For further project information please contact Professor Lindsay Wilson (lindsay.wilson@stir.ac.uk).
Application information can be obtained from: Linda Cullen Email: linda.cullen@stir.ac.uk Tel: +44
(0) 1786 466854
Deadline for applications: 30th January 2015