Social Environment and Early Psychosis: An Urban Mind Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Using smartphone-based monitoring to understand and predict risk of psychotic relapse at the individual level
IRAS ID
278399
Contact name
Andrea Mechelli
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Psychosis, which directly affects 2-3% of the population, is a severely debilitating psychiatric disorder characterised by a range of symptoms including false beliefs, false perceptions and disorganised thinking. Although antipsychotic medication can lead to rapid improvement in the acute phase of the disorder, most patients subsequently relapse. In order to address this challenge, we have developed a smartphone app which allows the close monitoring of people across multiple contexts, time-points and locations in real time (Urban Mind; www.urbanmind.info). This study will use an adapted version of the Urban Mind app to measure daily social stress – which is thought to be a strong predictor of the risk of relapse – in patients with a first episode of psychosis (FEP). Using a naturalistic follow-up design, data will be collected from 451 participants with a first episode of psychosis via face-to-face interviews and a smartphone application that is used to examine the impact of the social environment. This app employs ecological momentary assessment (EMA) - a technique that involves multiple sampling of participants’ current experiences and behaviours as they go about their daily life. Participant’s will attend four assessments in total, the baseline assessment will involve the completion of demographic, general health questionnaires and a clinical interview. Participants will take part in the EMA component of the study for 12 months, during which the app will send 1 notification per day requiring completion of a brief questionnaire (covering previous night's sleep, social contact, social stress sensitivity and mental wellbeing). Follow-up assessments will occur 4-, 8-, and 12-months after baseline to assess clinical and functional outcome. We hope to use the data collected to develop a predict model linking social stress sensitivity, social withdrawal with risk of future psychotic relapse.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/0331
Date of REC Opinion
29 Apr 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion