We recently published a detailed report which you can access online by clicking: here.
At this time we are only recruiting volunteers over the age of 18, although in future we may develop separate databases for children and teenagers. There is no maximum age limit and we welcome volunteers from all sections of the community.
It's entirely up to you. The MindSearch database is just a directory of volunteers to help speed up the process of identifying participants. Individual researchers will contact you directly with details of their study, and you can always choose whether or not to take part.
Whilst we don't pay people to register on the database, the vast majority of research projects will reimburse you for your participation. This amount varies according to what the research involves and who is funding it.
Directions to the Institute of Psychiatry can be found by clicking here. We would advise you allow plenty of time, make a note of your researcher's name, and make sure you have each other's mobile phone numbers in case of delays or if you need to cancel.
Most projects at the IOP use psychological tests and questionnaires to explore different types of brain function. For example, you might be asked to fill in a questionnaire on how your mood has been in the past week. You might be shown a list of words and asked to remember them to test your memory, or you might be given a set of puzzles to work at within a given time period. Most psychology tests resemble word games or puzzles, rather than the "tell me about your childhood" sessions you might see on television. Many years ago there were psychology experiments where participants were deceived as to the true nature of the tests. However, in modern times this is considered an unethical practice and would not be allowed.
In most research studies we are looking at the differences between the average performance of two of more groups; say, people with or without dementia. The tools we use are not generally suitable to give you individual results as they aren't meaningful outside the context of the study itself. Researchers will not give you your score on individual tests that you carry out, but if you ask them they should be able to send you a summary of their findings when their study is complete. Keep in mind that research is a very slow process, however, and you may have to wait some time! We will also post brief summaries of the findings from research projects here on this site so that you can find out about studies you may have been involved with, and also many of the other projects that we have been working on.
MindSearch is run and maintained by an administrator at the IOP. All staff involved in the project receive training in the requirements of the Data Protection Act. Sometimes it may be necessary for researchers to record some of your test scores on your database record. This is because many studies use the same battery of tests, and to save your time as well as to get a more accurate set of data it is best if you only complete such tests once. Some projects are funded by pharmaceutical companies who may have access to your data, but it will be in an anonymised form. Under the Data Protection Act you have the right to see your own record, please make such requests in writing to the postal address listed under the "contact us" section.
Before being eligible to recruit volunteers from the MindSearch database, all studies must have gained ethical approval from the local research ethics committee at the IOP, and possibly other NHS organisations involved in the project too. For more information visit the COREC website.
Over the summer we have had a massive increase in volunteer numbers, but came to the end of our funding for staff to administer the database. We are currently operating a restricted service until we can recruit a permanent member of staff. If you registered in August (or more recently) then your form may be in our backlog. Please be patient whilst we work to clear through this. Thank you for your support in helping research.