Study Aims

Neurological Impairment (NI) can be any disorder of the body’s nervous system, and can present with a range of symptoms. Many children with NI are prone to chest infections, which can lead to long stays in hospital, and can be life threatening. Despite the impact on children and their families due to these infections and the high cost to health services, there is very little information on how best to prevent them. Some doctors prescribe long-term antibiotics but we don’t really know whether this makes any difference to the numbers of chest infections children suffer from, or whether these antibiotics can cause long-term harm.  

PARROT is a clinical trial looking at an antibiotic called azithromycin. This trial aims to find out whether 12 months of treatment with azithromycin reduces how often children with NI have to stay in hospital with chest infections. 

What does participating in the study involve?

Taking part is voluntary. If you don’t want to take part then you don’t have to or give a reason why. If you choose to take part you can also choose to stop at any time without giving a reason.  

In the PARROT study, patients will be split into two treatment groups at random during the screening visit: 

• One group will receive azithromycin  
• The other group will receive placebo, that will look and taste the same as azithromycin but will not contain any antibiotic  

Both groups will take their medication 3 times a week for 12 months. 

Whilst taking your medication you will have monthly contact with the research team. These will take place remotely by phone. The trial treatment will be posted to your home. There may also be an additional face-to-face follow up visit at 20 months.   

During the trial, you will need to answer some questions and complete some questionnaires. The questions include how you are getting on and the questionnaires will ask about your sleep and quality of life. We may also take weight measurements at the start and end of the trial.  

 If you visit the hospital outside of the arranged follow up visits due to a chest infection we will also collect some information about this visit.  

For more information please contact the study team on: researchforchilden@sgul.ac.uk 

Or check out the website: www.parrot-trial.org.uk