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 Â鶹´«Ã½ 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.
