Blood Samples

 

As part of the study you will be asked to provide blood samples. Our research uses the samples and information you have provided to help understand psychosis better.

We will measure the level of cytokines in your blood and relate this to measures of inflammation in the brain shown by the brain scan.

If you are happy to do so, we will also send blood samples for genetic analysis. We study the huge number of tiny genetic differences found between one person and another.  We hope to find out if these tiny differences are related in any way to mental health problems and to the imaging and thinking/reasoning tasks done in the study. With your consent we will hold your samples so that they will be available for use by other researchers in the field under a system that strictly protects your confidentiality. The samples will be stored at Cardiff University.