Healthcare Organisation: Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Chief Investigator’s Organisation: Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Chief Investigator: Dr Alvaro Barrera
Start date: 06/01/2026
People sometimes experience sudden episodes of psychosis, where they may hear voices, hold strong unusual beliefs or feel very confused, but then recover fully within a short period of time. These brief psychotic episodes can be very distressing, and at the moment we do not fully understand why they happen in some individuals.
Some reports suggest that viral infections such as flu or COVID-19 might trigger psychotic symptoms in a small number of people, possibly because of the way the body’s immune and inflammatory systems respond to infection. However, it is still unclear how common this is and whether there may be a specific group of patients whose brief psychotic episode follows a recent viral illness.
This study will use the Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) system, which allows researchers to look at anonymised information from Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust’s electronic records. We will identify patients aged 14 and above who were admitted to mental health wards over the last ten years with a brief psychotic episode. We will then look at their anonymised records to see how often there is mention of a recent viral infection, viral-like symptoms such as fever or cough, and blood tests that suggest infection or inflammation around the time they became unwell.
No patients will be contacted and no changes will be made to anyone’s care. All information is de-identified before researchers see it, and the work is carried out under strict data protection and confidentiality rules. By understanding whether viral illnesses commonly occur around the time of brief psychosis, we hope to inform future research and, in the long term, help clinicians to better recognise and manage this potential subgroup of patients.
