Project details

Summary

What is the study about? 

People who have experienced psychosis can experience changes in their activity levels, mental health, sleep pattern and social behaviour when they feel they are becoming unwell. For example, someone who is feeling very anxious or low might not feel like socialising much. They might stay at home more than usual, phone their friends less, sleep less, and experience other changes they do not wish for. 

In the CONNECT study, we are building on previous research, to see how changes in behaviours and patterns might relate to someone’s mental health getting worse. In the future, it might be possible to tell in advance when someone’s mental health might be getting worse by looking at these changes and offer extra support at the time it is needed.

What are you trying to find out?

We would like to see how easy or difficult it is for people who have experienced psychosis recently (in the past two years) to use a smartphone and wrist-worn activity tracker to look at things like their sleep patterns, social behaviour, phone usage and mental health, and to see how changes in these might relate to whether their mental health gets better or worse.

What does taking part involve?

1. Give consent /agree to take part in the study
2. Provide some information about your mental and physical health, your background, your living environment
3. Wear either a fitness tracker or a smartwatch on your wrist (we will provide it)
4. Download and use the CONNECT smartphone app (we can provide a smartphone phone for this), and answer a short set of questions throughout the week
5. Stay in contact with the study team via phone and online, mainly once a month 
6. You will get paid £20 for attending a 90 minute meeting every 3 months, we will pay network costs of £10 per month for the time you are taking part in the study (up to 12 months).

Who is it for?

We are aiming to recruit approximately 1,100 people who:

• have recently experienced psychosis (in the past 2 years)
• are currently in contact with mental health services
• are aged over 16 years, and 
• who feel able and willing to participate.

Why is it important? 

In the future, it might be possible to tell in advance when someone’s mental health might be getting worse by looking at this type of information and offering extra support.

Participating in this study will not cure or treat psychosis. We hope our meetings and interviews will provide an open and comfortable space in which you can feel free to share your thoughts, feelings, and opinions. Participating in research can be rewarding, and you will be contributing to the development of new knowledge which could benefit other people in the future. The information you give us might mean that in the future we will be able to tell in advance when someone’s mental health might be getting worse and offering extra support to keep people safe and well, at the time it’s needed. 

At the end of the study, we will give a summary of your information and an opportunity to talk about it with the research team. Learning more about how your sleep, thoughts and feelings, behaviours and phone usage relates to your mood and symptoms could give you important insights into staying well in the future.

How can I find out more?

You can find out more information about taking part in this study by downloading the key documents at the top of this page. You can visit the CONNECT project website here.

If you are interested in taking part in this study, or have questions for the research team, click the button below to email the research team:

Email the research team