ASRB
Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank
Australian case-control bank of people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and healthy controls, with clinical, cognitive and genetic data and, for a subset, 1.5T T1-weighted and diffusion MRI. Retired in 2022; data are released to approved, ethics-cleared projects.
Overview
The Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank (ASRB) is a case-control resource set up in 2006 by the Schizophrenia Research Institute with university and health service partners in Newcastle, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne. NeuRA dates its launch to 2007. It linked clinical, neuropsychological, genetic and brain imaging information from people with schizophrenia and healthy controls, and also served as a pool of volunteers for later studies. Researchers could apply for data from 2009. NeuRA, which has hosted the bank since 2015, states that the ASRB was retired in late 2022 and that de-identified, unlinkable raw data remain available to researchers with ethics approval.
Composition
Cases have a confirmed DSM-IV or ICD-10 diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Controls were screened for a personal or family history of psychiatric illness. Participants were English-speaking adults aged 18 to 65. The 2010 descriptor paper reports preliminary analyses of 493 cases and 293 controls, with mean ages of 39.5 and 37.4 years. Men made up 65.9% of cases and 46.8% of controls. NeuRA describes the full bank as covering more than 1,000 people. Only a subset of participants consented to and completed MRI, and the number scanned is not stated in the sources.
Acquisition
Recruitment ran in Sydney, the Hunter, Illawarra, Orange, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne. According to the 2013 researcher guidelines, consenting participants had two scans on a 1.5 T Siemens Avanto: a T1-weighted MP-RAGE with 0.98 x 0.98 x 1.0 mm voxels, and a diffusion tensor scan with 64 directions at b = 1000 s/mm2 plus one b = 0 image. Every participant also had a diagnostic interview, a cognitive battery and a blood sample for DNA.
Annotations
There are no image labels. Each subject comes with a diagnosis and a core set of age, sex and ethnicity; clinical interview and cognitive scores are released on justified request. Processed images may be available from the bank.
Known limitations
- The bank is retired. The most recent published access terms are the 2013 guidelines, and current conditions must be confirmed with NeuRA.
- Access went through an access committee and carried cost recovery fees (in 2013, $800 per application plus $1,000 and $15 per participant for MRI/DTI data).
- The cases differ from population samples, for example by sex ratio and education, as the descriptor paper notes.
Cohort
Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 786 subjects.
Condition
subjects, values can overlap
- Schizophrenia 493 63%
- Healthy control 293 37%
License and access
Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer
A research proposal is reviewed and approved
Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank Guidelines for Researchers and Access Agreement
Data go to specific schizophrenia research projects approved by the ASRB Access Committee, after ethics approval and a signed access agreement, on a cost recovery basis. Data stay with the approved project team, the ASRB must appear on the author line, and publications and annual reports go back to the bank.
What you can do
- Conditional
- Not stated
- Not stated
- Conditional
What you can share
- Conditional
- Share derived data Not stated
- Share trained models Not stated
What you must do
- Yes
- Share alike No
- Yes
- Yes
- Manuscript review No
- Release code No
- Yes
- Conditional
Limits
- Not stated
- Conditional
Citation
Loughland C, Draganic D, McCabe K, et al. Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank: a database of comprehensive clinical, endophenotypic and genetic data for aetiological studies of schizophrenia. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 44(11):1029-1035 (2010). doi:10.3109/00048674.2010.501758. The ASRB guidelines also require the ASRB in the author line and a fixed acknowledgement statement.
All numbers
Every number on this page, as stored in stats.csv, with its source.
| Measure | Breakdown | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects | total sum of the two disjoint groups in the preliminary analyses (493 cases, 293 controls); whole bank at that time, not the MRI subset | 786 | loughland2010 Abstract (Results) |
| Subjects | condition=schizophrenia schizophrenia cases; preliminary analyses, whole bank | 493 | loughland2010 Abstract (Results) |
| Subjects | condition=healthy preliminary analyses, whole bank | 293 | loughland2010 Abstract (Results) |
| Mean age | condition=schizophrenia | 39.5 | loughland2010 Abstract (Results) |
| Age SD | condition=schizophrenia | 11.1 | loughland2010 Abstract (Results) |
| Mean age | condition=healthy | 37.4 | loughland2010 Abstract (Results) |
| Age SD | condition=healthy | 13.1 | loughland2010 Abstract (Results) |
Sources
The keys used in the table above.
- loughland2010 Loughland C et al. 2010, Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry paper
- neura-asrb NeuRA, Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank page website
- asrb-guidelines-2013 ASRB Guidelines for Researchers, version December 2013 (archived copy) website
- asrb-cost-recovery-review ASRB Cost Recovery Rate Review (archived copy) website