Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been recognised as a top recruiting site for a revolutionary psychosis study.

The recruitment has been to bolster research about the presence of pathogenic antibodies in the blood of people with psychosis.

The Prevalence in Pathogenic Antibodies in Psychosis study takes a closer look at specific antibodies which have the potential of being mistakenly created by the immune system, and is showing exceptional results.

The Oxford Health team has demonstrated one of the highest recruitment rates to this study nationally.

The mental health research and delivery team has been gathering blood samples from patients exhibiting psychotic symptoms.

If these patients test positive for these particular antibodies, they become suitable for the SINAPPS2 study, which is trialling an immunotherapy treatment aimed at targeting these antibodies as a way of treating psychosis.

Compared to standard NHS antibody testing, the Prevalence in Pathogenic Antibodies in Psychosis method utilises a different cell arrangement technique to provide more accurate results.

Previous testing methods caused several individuals to test negative in error due to test inaccuracy, while certain patients showing psychosis-like symptoms found they did not respond to antipsychotic treatments.

Only after taking an antibody-specific blood test do these patients realise that they may benefit from alternative treatments, such as immunotherapy.

The study could help to discover causes of psychosis that traditional psychiatric treatments are not be able to treat.