The Prince of Wales International Centre for SANE Research

The vision

Prior to the formation of SANE in 1986 there was a considerable paucity of research interest in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. One of the charity’s endeavours has been to initiate and fund research into the causes and treatments of mental illness.

In order to focus research efforts, SANE established The Prince of Wales International Centre for SANE Research (POWIC) in 1994 in conjunction with the research psychiatrist Professor Tim Crow.

Professor Crow was appointed the honorary scientific director of SANE based at the Department of Psychiatry at Warneford Hospital, part of Oxford University. SANE successfuly raised £3.5 million to establish a new centre on the Warneforld Hospital site that opened in 2003. The specially designed and purpose built centre includes office and laboratory space, as well as conference and library facilities.

The aims

The aims of POWIC are:

to establish the causes of severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression
to become a central point for discussion in this field
to disseminate scientific information on mental illnesses.

The research

Professor Crow has being studying schizophrenia for over 20 years, and he and his research group have been developing and researching a specific hypothesis about the origins of psychosis - that it is associated with the unique human capacity for language.

Professor Crow arrived at this hypothesis by bringing together the fact that schizophrenia only appears to occur in humans and not in our closest relatives, chimpanzees. The same can be said of brain asymmetry (the left and right sides of the brain, which are basically the same, being different in size). Brain asymmetry has been linked to the capacity for language.

POWIC's quest for an organic basis for mental illness is pursued using three levels of explanation:

genetics - looking at the genetic differences between humans and chimpanzees to find out about brain evolution, and genetic differences between individuals with schizophrenia and those without
neuropathology - the physical differences between the brains of those with schizophrenia and those without, such as regional brain volumes and cell density
neuroimaging and psychology - the relationship between brain structure on MRI scans and behaviour, in particular between brain asymmetry and language function.

It is hoped that this research will help us to learn more about the origins of psychosis and that this information will enable better treatments to be developed for those who experience psychoses.