About

About Psy-ShareD

In recent decades, numerous Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies investigating brain structure in schizophrenia and psychosis populations have been conducted, progressing our understanding of the neuroanatomical basis of schizophrenia.

However, many of these studies are underpowered, due to small sample sizes resulting from the costs of MRI, difficulties recruting patients with psychotic illness and a failure to take into account differences across illness stages.

Psy-ShareD will combine high quality, valuable, underutilised pre-existing 'legacy' MRI T1 datasets, with linked clinical and cognitive data into one free-to-access resource. We will construct a database covering the disease stages listed below, using ethnically and geographically diverse datasets.

Structural (T1) MRI scans in groups:

Schizophrenia (SCZ)
First episode psychosis (FEP)
Clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis
Familial high risk (FHR) for psychosis
High levels of schizotypy (HSZ)
Bipolar disorder (BP)
Experience of childhood trauma (CT)
Healthy controls (HC)

Psy-ShareD database will be accessible to all UK and international academic institutions. This will allow researchers who are not affiliated with the large biomedical schools will be able to conduct well-powered research and derive new knowledge.

Consistent with the UK government's levelling-up agenda, the database will increase UK capacity and access beyond institutions that are largely concentrated in the southeast of England.

Objectives

Maximising the visibility of the database
Develop and use state-of-the-art methods to harmonise and standardise structural MRI, clinical and cognitive data
Seek out and integrate new MRI datasets, especially those acquired in non-Caucasian psychosis and psychosis risk cohorts
Use Psy-ShareD to conduct and publish a proof-of-principle study addressing a current knowledge gap in the psychosis MRI literature

Data Management

Data will be managed and stored at King's College London
Data will be free to access via a short application process using a template that can be downloaded here