Abstract
In 2007 the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank was officially launched and a recruitment campaign commenced to achieve an initial sample of 2,000 cases of schizophrenia and2,000 healthy controls for a nationwide genetic epidemiology study of schizophrenia. The study involves scientific collaborators in four States and is funded through a NHMRC Enabling Grant, philanthropic sources and the resources of the Schizophrenia Research Institute. All participants undergo a comprehensive clinical assessment using a structured diagnostic interview and symptom ratings, a neuropsychological test battery and structural MRI scanning; blood is taken for later genetic studies. This paper presents a limited range of data on the first participants recruited (N322 at the time of writing, 187 cases and135 controls) one third of whom have had MRI scans. Some of the challenges involved in a large-scale initiative of this kind are discussed, including consensus protocol development; quality control issues; staff recruitment and training; participant sampling and assessment ; governance and access policies and systems; data storage, management and transfer; communications and operational management challenges. All of these factors are crucial for ensuring the integrity of the information held in the Bank. By linking reliable and valid clinical, cognitive, neuroanatomical and genetic information in a large sample of cases and controls, the Bank has the potential to subdivide the schizophrenia phenotype and identify aetiologically significant subgroups with characteristic genetic, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging profiles.A40 AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY (2008) 42 (Suppl. 2).
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