Biological correlates of dimensional symptoms of psychosis (BioPoP)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Biological correlates of dimensional symptoms of psychosis (BioPoP)
IRAS ID
182249
Contact name
Rachel Upthegrove
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Hallucinations and delusions (also known as positive symptoms) are core features used to define psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. However people with schizophrenia can also have difficulty in occupational and social functioning, memory problems and mood symptoms. Thus there are probably several related but distinct groups of symptoms (dimensions) in people with psychotic disorders and we see these prominently in the early phase of illness. During the first episode of psychosis young people present with a large variety of these symptoms and diagnostic certainty is a significant clinical challenge. Depression is common in FEP, and this is also the time of the greatest decline in social and occupational function. We know that that depression and positive symptoms may occur together but they do not predict each other over time. We think these dimensions of psychosis have different underlying causes and hypothesise that these can be detected by different biological tests (called biomarkers).
In this proposal we aim to investigate biomarkers for positive symptoms, depression and functioning in first episode psychosis using brain imaging and biochemical markers of inflammation. We will recruit 120 participants with first episode psychosis from two large Early Intervention Psychosis services in Birmingham, together with 42 healthy controls. Each participant will have blood test for markers of inflammation, a brain scan and a standardised clinical interview that measures current symptoms and functioning.
Early intervention has had a significant impact on the treatment of severe mental illness in the last twenty years however psychosis remains a cause of distress, economic and social burden. Thus the need for more effective treatments is clear. This study has the potential to identify objective markers of symptom dimensions at an early stage of the illness. Thus, if positive, our findings could lead to the more accurate early detection of patients and new treatments to be developed specifically targeted to these symptoms dimensions.REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/WM/0255
Date of REC Opinion
22 Sep 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion