CAP
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cognitive Problems in Ageing and Psychosis
IRAS ID
330718
Contact name
Paul Donaghy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
6 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Background
This project seeks to improve the diagnosis of dementia in older people with psychosis and increase our understanding of the link between psychosis and dementia.
Psychosis describes symptoms such as seeing things or hearing things that are not really present, and having fixed beliefs that are incorrect (for example that someone’s neighbours are persecuting them). Previous studies have shown that older people with psychosis are at higher risk of developing dementia. However, these studies have not been able to investigate factors that might predict which older people with psychosis will go on to develop dementia, and which will not.People with psychosis and dementia are often misdiagnosed. New blood tests may help to identify dementia in people with psychosis, but this has not yet been investigated. We will investigate blood tests for dementia and inflammation in late onset psychosis.
We will recruit a group of 50 people with very late onset psychosis (along with up to 50 study partners) from local NHS Trusts and 30 controls (study partners are not required for control participants). Participants will undertake clinical assessments and blood testing at baseline and one year. Where available, participants with very late onset psychosis will also have a study partner, who will complete questionnaires about them. This number of participants will allow us to investigate differences in blood tests between the groups and to see whether the blood tests predict who will develop more problems with thinking and memory over time.
REC name
London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/LO/0754
Date of REC Opinion
21 Nov 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion