Pilot Study of White Matter in Early Psychosis Version 93838-1

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Pilot Case-Control Study of White Matter in Early Psychosis in Young People.

• IRAS ID

  93838

• Contact name

  A. Michael J. Wardell

• Contact email

  michael.wardell@sussexpartnership.nhs.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching)

• Research summary

  By better understanding of psychosis we hope to help relatives, the general public and young people themselves to be fairer to young people and to people with psychotic illnesses. We hope that the results of this study will enable us and other researchers to go on to develop better treatments and prevention strategies.

  We intend to compare the brains of young people with psychotic illnesses to those of young people who are not ill.

  Many of the things which happen in psychosis seem to be related to how the front of the brain works; others seem to be related to damage to the parts of the brain near the ears. We have already shown that there are problems in psychosis with the nerve connections between the parts of the brain near the ears and the front of the brain.

  We intend to study:
  1. the front of the brain.
  2. the parts of the brain near the ears.
  3. the nerve connections between 1 and 2.
  4. how the damage to each nerve connection occurs in the same individual. 5. how some nerve connections seem to compensate for damage to others.
  6. the developing maturity of each brain
  7. how the front of the brain is working

  By comparing all seven of the above in psychosis with the same seven things in people who are not ill, we hope to come up with suggestions for future studies of the same young people and of further groups of young people.

  We hope to be able to speculate from our results about how the brain's development differs in those with psychosis and how damage to the parts of the brain near the ears before birth leads to differences in how the brain develops and how it works in adulthood.

• REC name

  London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  13/LO/1185

• Date of REC Opinion

  10 Mar 2014

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion