The Clinical Core established earlier has been combined with the Brain Bank Core. This newly formed core will recruit new subjects for brain tissue and neuroimaging studies. It will clinically follow previously recruited subjects and will perform a single neuropsychological and diagnostic assessment of newly recruited subjects who are likely to come to autopsy. Those subjects who come to autopsy without the benefit of antemortem diagnosis and assessment will receive expert review of medical records and informant interviews to complete a structured psychological autopsy. The Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM) / Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center Brain Bank (BB) has been operating for approximately 23 years. The schizophrenia component of the bank has been in operation since 1989. Over 1380 brain tissue specimens have been banked and include 147 confirmed schizophrenia cases with no significant neuropathology or psychiatric comorbidity. In addition, 145 control cases are also available. In the past 18 months this cohort has been expanded to include 21 cases of schizophrenia under the age of 61 and 25 similarly aged controls. In addition, a cohort or 48 cases with major depression or bipolar disease has been added. Additional schizophrenic and control cases are accrued on a continual basis and the enrollment projections and objectives of the Clinical Assessment Core indicate that the number of schizophrenic cases available for autopsy will continue or grow during the next 5 years. All specimens are collected with the absolute minimum postmortem delay as possible (mode PMI = 6 hours for cases with legal next of kin present (65%)). Each brain specimen is banked in both flash-frozen and fixed form and receives a full state-of-the-art neuropathology assessment. Clinical records are searched for every case and all medical conditions and medications received during at least the last 12 months of life are recorded. This core has collaborated with Dr. Dwark (Columbia) and has confirm the initial schizophrenia-associated myelin gene expression deficit findings of the CCNMD in the brains of persons dying at younger ages (mean age 51).
The aim of this core is to continue to perform state-of-the-art clinical assessments and brain banking to meet the needs of projects 1 (Hof), 2 (O'Donovan), 3 (Buxbaum) and 4 (Buchsbaum) of the CCNMD, the schizophrenia-associated funded projects that are dependent on the CCNMD, as well as to meet the needs of future, as yet, unspecified studies.
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