Largest psychiatric brain bank is housed in Antwerp
The Duffel Psychiatric Hospital is taking possession of a collection of more than three thousand brains. Staff at Antwerp University will use the brain bank for psychiatric research. It will probably be the largest collection of its kind.
Thanks to the close collaboration between Duffel Psychiatric Hospital and Antwerp University, the largest psychiatric brain bank in the world is now situated in Belgium. “The collection from the neuropath John Corsellis is moving from a hospital in London to Duffel, because the Brits had difficulty housing it”, explains Manuel Morrens who as research director at Duffel Psychiatric Hospital, was involved in organising the transfer. “A PhD student at Antwerp University made the first contact and our research group CAPRI subsequently obtained the collection.”
The brain bank is unique in its kind, since it only includes the brains of psychiatric patients, and the oldest brains have hardly been treated with psychiatric medication. Nowadays, most brains are affected by pharmaceutical treatments. Working with the Corsellis collection, researchers from Antwerp University can now conduct more effective comparative studies, and develop new treatment methods for depression, psychosis and manic episodes. Since post-mortem research is normally strictly regulated, CAPRI will have a unique opportunity over the coming years to analyse brains directly.