SEPEA – Social Epidemiology of Psychoses in East Anglia
The SEPEA study is a research study of the epidemiology of psychosis in East Anglia. The study is important because it will allow us to understand more about the people who develop serious mental health problems in our region and tailor our mental health services to meet the diverse needs of these groups. In East Anglia we have several early intervention services designed to help young people (14-35) who develop - or are at a high risk of developing - psychosis. In East Anglia we know that a lot of people use these services but we need to find out more about who these people are and where they come from so we can effectively plan for the future. The SEPEA study has been designed to do this.
- To establish the overall rate of new cases of psychosis in East Anglia over 3.5 years
- To discover whether these rates differ across different groups of people, such as men and women, by age and other sociodemographic characteristics
- To discover whether these rates differ across the region - such as in our cities versus more rural areas
- To establish the social and demographic characteristics of people who are at very high risk of psychosis in East Anglia
- To see if we can predict the rate of psychosis in other areas of the UK based on what we find out in East Anglia
The SEPEA study is a collaboration between early intervention mental health services in East Anglia (Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, Norfolk and Suffolk) and researchers in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. The study has the following aims:
The study will collect basic information on people referred to our early intervention psychosis services over a 3.5 year period. This will include items such as age, gender, occupation and ethnic group to allow us to meet the aims above. This data will only be analysed between groups, meaning that we will not be directly looking at any individual data.
The research team is based in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge. The Chief Investigator of the study is Professor Peter Jones, who is also Head of the Department. Dr James Kirkbride is a Principle Investigator on the study and responsible for the design and conduct of the study. Dr Tim Croudace is methodological advisor to the study. We are pleased to collaborate with Professor David Fowler at the University of East Anglia who will provide expertise on early intervention research.
We have our first set of results published for the study: Results
More information about the study can be found at:
www.sepea.org
You can get in touch with the research team (Dr James Kirkbride):
By email:
james@sepea.org
By phone: 01223 336798