This project has now finished, but you can still read about the project and our results and view our infographics (released under CC-BY-SA)
Depression Detectives was a user-led citizen science project which ran between Feb-Sep 2021. It brought together people with lived experience of depression, and researchers who study it, as EQUAL partners. We wanted to make depression research better by listening to and working with non-scientists and putting lived experience at the heart of research.
This public engagement activity was part of an MRC funded research project. It was a collaboration between Edinburgh Neuroscience and public engagement practitioner Sophia Collins and her team.
(Some of the staff also received funding from European Commission funded CoMorMent project)
Depression Detectives participants quizzed real live scientists and discussed where there were gaps in the research. They then designed their own research study, and ran it together with researchers.
Each participant gave as much or as little time as suited them. We had some fun and met some interesting people along the way!
Why did we do this?
User-led citizen science is the best way to create people-centred, sensitive research which addresses the questions that matter to the participants. Those directly affected have insights that may not be obvious to researchers who aren’t part of the community they are studying. And they know what matters to them, and what makes a difference to their lives.
What can you find on this website?
Transcripts of the Q&As (including a psychotherapist, social and medical anthropologist, psychiatrist and brain imaging experts)
Results from Sophia’s previous citizen science projects
News and updates on what we’re doing in Depression Detectives
Stay in touch
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