Schizophrenia Research Institute
The Schizophrenia Research Institute is the only national medical research institute solely dedicated to discovering the ways to prevent and cure schizophrenia.
Established in 1996 as Australia's first virtual medical research Institute, the organisation conducts and supports schizophrenia research in hospitals, universities and research institutes across the country and internationally. With approximately 60 employees and 140 scientific affiliates, the Institute drives a proactive research agenda, has invested over $21 million and has had numerous successes to date.
The Institute is NHMRC accredited and is funded by government grants (NSW Health & NHMRC), corporate and private donations. A registered charity throughout Australia, further donations can be given via this website or by phoning.
What we do?
The Schizophrenia Research Institute brings together the best minds in schizophrenia research to work together in a cohesive approach to discover the ways to prevent and cure schizophrenia.
How Can Research Help?
Research suggests that schizophrenia may be a developmental disorder resulting from alterations in the usual maturing process of the nervous system. Although progress has been made toward better understanding and treatment of schizophrenia, continued investigation is urgently needed. Research is gradually leading to new and safer medications and to unravelling the complex causes of the disease.
The Schizophrenia Research Institute supports schizophrenia-related research in a wide range of scientific domains, from neuroscience through to clinical, and has developed a wide range of new initiatives, initially throughout New South Wales, but increasingly on a national scale.
The institute supports a multi-disciplinary program of schizophrenia research in the areas of Developmental Neurobiology and Cognitive Neuroscience. The Schizophrenia Research Institute has also been instrumental in developing schizophrenia research infrastructure facilities, which have provided a foundation for the subsequent research outcomes.
Launched in 2007, the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank aims to collect and link genetic, clinical, neuropsychological and brain imaging information from 2,000 individuals with schizophrenia and 2,000 healthy controls. Data from this unique resource will be particularly important to support meaningful schizophrenia-related studies conducted by scientists who do not have access to clinical populations.
Who benefits?
1 in 100 young people will develop schizophrenia, causing permanent disability in many. In addition to the heavy emotional burden and distress for families around Australia, schizophrenia costs the community over $2 billion annually in direct costs and loss of productivity.
At a time when others are planning their lives ahead, patients with schizophrenia have their future plans taken away from them. Plans for further education, careers and relationships are often curtailed as the biology of the disorder takes over. Retreating from reality, with delusion formation and hallucinations, social isolation becomes an ongoing problem.
There is currently no cure for this lifelong chronic disease. Prior to the launch of the Schizophrenia Research Institute in 1996 there was no strategic drive in NSW for research into schizophrenia. Today the opportunities to make a difference in this area of research are dramatically improved. The more research we do now, the sooner we will be able to prevent young people from developing schizophrenia.
