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The NHS has begun recruiting thousands of adults with severe mental health conditions, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression, for one of the largest studies of its kind. Researchers aim to use genetic data, health records, and surveys to better understand these conditions and develop more personalised treatments, marking a potential new era in mental health care across England.

From this week, almost 50,000 eligible adults living with bipolar, schizophrenia, psychosis, or major depression in England and Wales are invited to join the GlobalMinds study. This study is the world’s largest mental health study, and researchers will analyse the DNA and questionnaire data to understand what increases the risk and severity of mental health conditions.

NHS England’s DigiTrials service will contact eligible patients to see whether they would like to take part in helping to find new treatments. Patients will be provided with at-home sampling kits with targeted NHS support for those who are more severely ill or face barriers to technology use.

The researchers will combine genetic data from blood or saliva samples with responses to online questionnaires and information from their medical records, linking genes, background, biology, and mental health.

This will create the most detailed dataset on serious mental health conditions, expanding current knowledge.

The three-year study will be led by mental health data science company Akrivia Health Ltd in partnership with Cardiff University. Ten NHS mental health trusts are currently supporting the project.

Dr Adrian James, NHS England’s National Medical Director for Mental Health and Neurodiversity, said: “This major new study could transform our understanding of severe mental illness and lead to the dawn of a new era of personalised treatments for patients with conditions including schizophrenia and severe depression.

“People living with a severe mental illness are affected by their condition every day – and it can often lead to preventable physical conditions and shorter lifespans.

“The new study gives us the opportunity to change the way we treat these conditions, and we’re using the NHS’s DigiTrials service to invite suitable people faster, fairly, and at scale. I’d encourage anyone contacted to consider signing up to be part of this ground-breaking study.”

GlobalMinds’ Chief Investigator, Professor James Walters from Cardiff University, said: “GlobalMinds provides an unprecedented opportunity to uncover and identify the many personal and biological factors behind mental health conditions, so researchers can help clinicians and patients by enabling earlier and more precise diagnosis, and making available optimum treatments for all patients.

“Precision medicine has already revolutionised the treatment of cancer and other rare diseases, and we want GlobalMinds to bring the same breakthroughs to mental health. By creating the first large-scale dataset linking both genetic and detailed routine clinical information, GlobalMinds will unlock a new era of personalised mental health care, so we can help tackle the global mental health crisis.”

Brian Dow, Deputy Chief Executive of Rethink Mental Illness, said: “This study has real potential to deepen our understanding and open the door to a new generation of treatments for mental illness.

“The strength of the study lies in the partnership between researchers, the NHS, and charities like ours, which means data can be powerfully fused with lived experience, with the voices of people experiencing mental illness remaining front and centre.

“We’re delighted to be supporting the study to reach as many people living with severe mental illness as possible.”

Akeela Mohammed, a GlobalMinds’ Patient Public Involvement and Engagement Adviser and Founder of Healthy Her, a not-for-profit organisation that empowers South Asian women through wellbeing, sport, and community engagement, said: “It is vital that research initiatives like GlobalMinds are created from beginning to end with the voices and needs of vulnerable and less included communities at their heart, so that the outcomes benefit as many people as possible.

“That’s why I’ve enjoyed providing both my personal experience of mental health and professional insights into the barriers diverse communities face in accessing research, to this groundbreaking study, and I cannot wait to see how this people-powered research will transform lives.”