PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This project is a collaboration between SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University (Brooklyn, NY), the
University of Ibadan (Ibadan, Nigeria) and the University of the West Indies (St. Augustine, Trinidad and
Tobago), which aims to examine differences in clinical presentation, health outcome, and treatment
response among patients with psychotic disorders around the world, with a novel emphasis on the Global
South. Building on extensive pilot work in the INTREPID I and INTREPID II studies, which laid the
groundwork for the identification of untreated psychosis in these locales, we newly incorporate a matched
cohort of patients receiving inpatient psychiatric care in these settings, and via collaboration with Stanley
Center for Psychiatric Research, all participants will undergo state-of-the-art whole genome sequencing
(WGS). We will benchmark the current generalizability of current polygenic scores to these populations,
and estimate the prevalence of rare, deleterious genomic variations (e.g. copy number variants) of known
neurodevelopmental relevance. The resultant clinical and genomic data will serve as the basis for
comparative analyses of these populations with US-based and international studies of psychosis in diverse
populations, namely VA Cooperative Studies Program #572 and the Million Veteran Program, and the
NIMH-supported Populations Underrepresented in Mental illness Association Studies (PUMAS) and All of
Us (AoU) studies, particularly with respect to illness presentation, treatment response, and comorbid
physical health problems. Collaboration with and equitable participation in large-scale, international
research consortia is a major focus of this project, which will also support two trainees at the University of
Ibadan, and the establishment of expanded, diverse-ancestry study cohort, with detailed data on untreated
psychosis prior and subsequent to the initiation of pharmacological treatment. These activities will also
support expanded research infrastructure at University of Ibadan and University of the West Indies,
establishing a solid basis for future collaborative research in these areas of utmost