Summary
Severe mental illnesses (SMIs) include psychiatric conditions that carry significant functional impairment, such as schizophrenia and related disorders, bipolar disorder and major depression. They affect just under 10% of the population.
While there is emerging knowledge on the onset of these conditions – involving complex correlations and interactions between genetic and environmental factors and atypical neurocognitive development – less is known on the factors that contribute to SMI trajectories (how symptoms change over time).
Between individuals, some show adaptive trajectories: symptom reduction and/or minimising the impact of their symptoms on daily functioning and resuming responsibility and control over their own lives. In comparison, others show poorer trajectories: struggling to maintain employment and stable and supportive relationships, having co-morbid health conditions, and reporting poor life satisfaction.
To address these challenges, the Medical Research Council (MRC), on behalf of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is establishing a £22.5 million mental health platform involving five new platform research hubs which aim to tackle key challenges in severe mental illness.
The Plymouth University Hub (Building recovery and resilience in severe mental illness: Leveraging the role of social determinants in illness trajectories and interventions, led by Professor Jennifer Lau, Queen Mary University of London) aims to gather novel data to enable a better understanding of the role of social determinants on illness trajectories and how these can be addressed in social treatments to support people with SMIs better manage their symptoms/interference and facilitate medium-to-long term recovery.
UKRI Medical Research Council