Autoantibodies in patients admitted to a general adult ward
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A preliminary study into the prevalence of autoantibodies to neuronal membrane targets in patients admitted into a male general adult ward.
IRAS ID
167720
Sponsor organisation
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 30 days
Research summary
Some forms of the syndrome of psychosis, where a person loses touch with reality, have been linked to an auto-immune response, where the body’s immune system produces antibodies against itself. Antibodies to parts of nerve cells have been found in some patients with psychosis, and more recently the same antibodies have been identified in patients with other psychiatric conditions (without psychosis). We would be interested to see how prevalent these antibodies are in patients with a variety of psychiatric conditions and to compare clinical characteristics of patients with and without the antibodies. This would give us a better understanding of the range of causes of psychiatric conditions and may lead to further work in the future which would improve the specificity of diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric conditions.
We will aim to recruit all patients aged between 18 and 65 admitted to one male acute psychiatric ward over the period of one year. As part of routine clinical care on the ward, patients already receive a thorough clinical interview, some psychological measures and blood tests. No additional measures or tests will be required, and the clinical team will discuss with patients whether they give their consent for their data to be used as part of the research project. All data required will be collected during the admission and requires no extra involvement of the patient in addition to their participation in investigations as part of routine clinical care.
REC name
South Central - Oxford A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0299
Date of REC Opinion
28 Jul 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion