Active clinical trials for "Mood Disorders"

The purpose of this study is to explore the pathological mechanism of cognitive impairment in patients with affective disorder based on brain gut axis research, preliminarily verify the clinical efficacy of new neural regulation technology on cognitive impairment, and establish an evaluation model to predict the efficacy of physical therapy for affective disorder.

Individuals living with a psychotic disorder often experience changes to their thinking and social skills that can lead to challenges with work, school, relationships and living independently. One intervention to target these areas is cognitive remediation therapy, which can be delivered in virtual reality to help apply the skills and strategies learned to day-to-day life. Over the past few years, our team has co-developed a cognitive remediation program in virtual reality with healthcare professionals and people with lived experiences of psychosis. The current trial tests the feasibility and efficacy of this cognitive remediation program in virtual reality at improving thinking skills, social skills, and daily life functioning.

Affective disorders (mainly including major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder) are common, chronic and highly disabling mental disorders, which lack of objective biological markers. It is believed that genetic and environmental factors are involved in the development of affective disorders. Gut microbes can affect the function of brain neural circuits by mediating metabolic, immune, endocrine and autonomic changes along the brain-gut axis. The brain can also regulate intestinal microbes through endocrine, neural structure, neurogenic exosomes and other pathways. Based on the brain-gut axis, this study intends to establish a large cohort of affective disorders, and screen out efficient and convenient biomarkers for clinical diagnosis and efficacy prediction by studying key indicators such as intestinal microbes, serum metabolites and immune indexes, brain-derived exosomes, and brain functional imaging.

Mania is a core symptom of bipolar disorder involving periods of euphoria. Decreased inhibitory control, increased risk-taking behaviors, and aberrant reward processing are some of the more recognized symptoms of bipolar disorder and are included in the diagnostic criteria for mania. Current drug therapies for mania are frequently intolerable, ineffective, and carry significant risk for side effects. Presently there are no neurobiologically informed therapies that treat or prevent mania. However, using a newly validated technique termed lesion network mapping, researchers demonstrated that focal brain lesions having a causal role in the development of mania in people without a psychiatric history can occur in different brain locations, such as the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and right inferior temporal gyrus (ITG). This lesion network evidence converges with existing cross-sectional and longitudinal observations in bipolar mania that have identified specific disruptions in network communication between the amygdala and ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex. The OFC is associated with inhibitory control, risk-taking behavior, and reward learning which are major components of bipolar mania. Thus, the association between OFC with mania symptoms, inhibitory control, risk-taking behavior, and reward processing suggests that this region could be targeted using non-invasive brain stimulation.

This study purpose is to conduct a confirmatory double-blind randomized controlled trial in an inpatient setting of the effects of a tightly controlled gluten-free diet (GFD) to improve negative symptoms in people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who have antibodies to gliadin (AGA IgG). As part of the project investigators will also confirm outcomes such as cognitive symptoms, changes in peripheral and central inflammation as well as gut/blood brain barrier permeability.

The overarching aim of the study is to determine the role of insulin signaling on the neurobiological substrates subserving anhedonia within individuals with mood disorders (i.e., Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)). Specific aims include: Molecular: Assessment of components of the insulin cascade, as well as of anhedonia and reward-related processes, using a proteomics and gene expression approach; Physiology: Measurement of peripheral sensitivity to insulin and metabolic correlates, including body mass index and dyslipidemia; Neural Circuits: Evaluation of the insulin sensitivity of prefrontal (e.g. prefrontal cortex) and striatal (e.g. nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area) networks in the resting-state and during an effort-based decision making test, using acutely administered intranasal insulin and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); Behavioral: Measurement of willingness to make effort for rewards, as well as of other components of reward response and anhedonia, using validated behavioral tasks and clinical scales (e.g. Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale - SHPS). This initiative represents a proof-of-concept study that insulin is important to anhedonia, neurocognitive functioning, and behavioural deficits in MDD, representing a novel and safe therapeutic avenue.

This is a double blind adjunctive randomized controlled trial for schizophrenia using cromoglicate.

Hearing voices is probably the worst form of acoustic hallucinations; which can be experienced as severely disturbing and is influenced by diverse factors including the ability of the individual to influence and control the hallucinatory experience itself. In recent years virtual reality has become a treatment option. In the so-called AVATAR Therapy, patients with schizophrenia and acoustic hallucinations design a visual and auditory recreation (avatar) of the entity to which they attribute their hallucinations. Working with a therapist over the course of several sessions, participants change the avatar from controlling to benevolent. Avatar Therapy involves similar processes to learning and cognitive restructuring, comparable to other psychotherapeutic interventions. The investigators plan to conduct an interventional study using a cross-over design, to compare the feasibility and efficacy of virtual reality avatar therapy for patients with acoustic hallucinations (independent of psychiatric diagnosis) with a cognitive behavioural group therapy aimed to improve social competence.

To study the effect of adjunctive bazedoxifene - a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) in a double blind, placebo-controlled adjunctive study in the treatment of women with schizophrenia. All patients receive standardized antipsychotic medication.

Large-scale, effective, low-cost, and evidence-based programs that can nimbly translate new research discoveries into prevention and care for psychosocial-based problems are urgently needed since the vast majority of people who need evidence-based care do not receive it. The purpose of this randomized control trial is to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of a Mood Lifters group template specifically for undergraduate students. Mood Lifters is an effective peer-led program that improves or maintains mental health. It seeks to help people enhance pleasure, engagement, and meaning in their lives while minimizing depression, fear, loneliness, and other negative feelings via a proprietary peer-based program that offers weekly meetings and other flexible support options. One obstacle to providing mental health care in the US is that it is costly to provide one-on-one therapy by a licensed professional. This is particularly true in large group settings with limited resources (counseling centers) and a large need for mental health care, like universities.