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Professor Peter Schofield shares recent breakthroughs that promise significant benefits

Professor Peter Schofield is a co-lead of the Complex and Difficult to Treat Diseases sub-theme of the UNSW Medicine Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction Theme and SPHERE Clinical Academic Group (CAG). He is Chief Executive Officer of Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and Joint Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Mindgardens Alliance.

In one of the biggest breakthroughs in schizophrenia research in recent times, researchers from NeuRA identified immune cells in greater amounts in the brains of some people with schizophrenia.

Here, Professor Schofield shares more about this important work and his role as sub-theme co-lead.

image - Professor Peter Schofield shares recent breakthroughs that promise significant benefits

Name: Professor Peter Schofield
 
Position: Chief Executive Officer, Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA)
Joint Interim Chief Executive Officer, Mindgardens Alliance
 
Theme and CAG position: Co-lead of the Complex and Difficult to Treat Diseases sub-theme 
 
How do you view your role as a sub-theme leader for Complex and Difficult to Treat Diseases? 

We have so many amazing scientists and skilled clinicians within the Theme and CAG who are committed to researching and improving the lives of individuals with mental illness or neurological disorders. My role is to help unite these skills into meaning collaborative partnerships. 

What are you hoping to achieve? 

Our initial goal has been to bring the many and diverse members of our Theme and CAG together, so that we might define ways to effect meaningful change and start to deliver improvements to health outcomes. This is a big challenge but it’s very encouraging to see the willingness of clinicians and researchers to get together to explore what might be possible.

The psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar, are exemplars of disorders that both have a very high burden of disease on a per person basis and are contributors to some of the largest costs in the health care system. These are significant health problems and we are still exploring how we can reduce the personal or health care burden. We have a difficult challenge, but one where even modest gains, including the recent breakthrough about the role of neuroinflammation in schizophrenia research, promise significant benefits to patients, families and the health care system. 
 
How has the Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction Theme and CAG facilitated new opportunities in research and/or collaboration in the Complex and Difficult to Treat Diseases sub-theme? 

Productive discussions between clinicians and researchers have led to new research initiatives. An example is a proposal to examine the role of the microbiome and metabolic syndrome in psychotic disorders. Led by Dr Maryanne O’Donnell from Prince of Wales Hospital (POWH), this pilot project brings together a wide range of talent, including the Microbiome Research Centre at St George Hospital, and our hope is that we will generate sufficient preliminary data that will support a more definitive study with competitive grant funding. The collaboration has already been successful as it was recently funded by a Theme and CAG grant.
 
What do you see as the emerging areas of research in the sub-theme? 

The recent breakthrough in understanding schizophrenia, led by Professor Cyndi Shannon Weickert, will have an impact on the way we conceptualise the biological basis of this major mental illness. Importantly her research is poised to transform the treatment of those with schizophrenia, especially by targeting neuroinflamation.

There is significant interest in seeing how we can develop a broader approach to the management of psychosis, focusing on the overall health and physical wellbeing of those experiencing psychotic disorders. Integrated approaches to healthcare are always rated highly by those living with the illness and there is now a growing enthusiasm for these broad-based collaborations to focus on improving patient outcomes. 

Examples such as these highlight why this is an especially exciting time for complex and difficult to treat disorders. At last, we can see how research and its translation are now so tantalizingly close to changing people’s lives. 


The Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction Theme and CAG consists of four sub-themes and two priority areas:
•    Sub-theme: Healthy Ageing
•    Sub-theme: Children and Adolescent Wellbeing
•    Sub-theme: Complex and Difficult to Treat Diseases
•    Sub-theme: Brain Sciences and Translational Neuroscience
•    Priority area: Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing
•    Priority area: Innovations in Health Technology (Living Lab)

The key areas of focus for the Complex and Difficult to Treat Diseases sub-theme are:
•    Schizophrenia and related psychoses
•    Bipolar disorder
•    Treatment resistant depression
•    Trauma related conditions
•    Alcohol and drug addictions and their co-morbidities
•    Behavioural change in the context of lifestyle and social adversity

image - Professor Peter Schofield shares recent breakthroughs that promise significant benefits