Active clinical trials for "Mental Disorders"

The study of immune pathways involved in the etiopathogeny of schizophrenia would be an important advance to understand the mechanisms involved in the development of this disease and it would be a turning point in drug therapy. Until now, the mechanism of action of antipsychotics focused on the blockade or modulation of brain dopaminergic pathways. If immunological pathways responsible for neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration which involve alterations in different areas and brain pathways (including dopaminergic pathways) are discovered, investigators could develop new treatments that act on these new targets, allowing to delay the onset of the first psychotic episode and improve the evolution and impact of this disease.

This study is about early intervention for preschool children with emotional and stress related disorders. To develop a set of program that could be used in district hospitals for early intervention of preschool children with emotional and stress related disorder or problems.

Psychomotor slowing may occur in major psychiatric disorders, such as major depressive disorders or schizophrenia spectrum disorders. It refers to slowing of fine motor skills, motor planning and gross motor behavior. In major depression and schizophrenia, psychomotor slowing is associated with alterations of premotor cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia. This randomized, sham-controlled, prospective trial will test, whether 15 sessions of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may ameliorate psychomotor slowing in schizophrenia or major depression.

People suffering from psychotic illnesses (e.g. schizophrenia) have poorer physical health than the general population. The reasons include a lack of service user motivation to attend physical health checks and the tendency of health professionals to focus mainly on the mental disorder thus delaying the detection of physical health conditions. Identifying people who have physical health needs is increasingly recognised as a priority. The investigators have developed a Physical Health Plan (PHP) which is completed by service users and identifies areas of physical health need. An action plan is then completed by the service user and care co-ordinator to address these issues. The PHP is designed to be very simple to use and there will be 3 versions, 1. paper version, 2. 1 version implemented via the 'IMPARTS' computerised 'tablet' based system that has been separately evaluated (REC Ref 12/SC/0422) and 3. 1 version on an iPad via the MHL2 system via Mindwaves. The investigators wish to pilot the use of this PHP in two community teams in the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) Trust. The pilot will be done in three stages. Stage One: The investigators will undertake an initial qualitative study to refine the process of using the PHP using focus group consultations with staff and service users. Stage Two: The investigators will then undertake a six month study to evaluate the uptake and use of the PHP. This will involve collecting data on how many people complete the PHP and what actions are taken following the completion of the PHP. Stage Three: At the end of this six month period the investigators will undertake qualitative interviews with a selection of service users and staff to understand their experience of using the PHP. The investigators hope to be able to use the results of this pilot study to introduce the use of the PHP into routine care.

To follow-up on the safety of subjects who were previously treated in a double-blind trial of brexpiprazole.

Vitamin D deficiency is common among otherwise healthy pregnant women and may have consequences for them as well as the early development and long-term health of their children. However, the importance of maternal vitamin D status has not been widely studied. The present study is divided into a societal experiment (1) and a case-cohort study (2): The present study includes an in-depth examination of the influence of exposure to vitamin D early in life and during critical periods of growth for development of type 1 diabetes (T1D), type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, obesity, asthma, arthritis, cancer, mental and cognitive disorders, congenital disorders, dental caries and bone fractures during child- and adulthood. The study is based on the fact that mandatory fortification of margarine with vitamin D, which initiated in 1937, was terminated in 1985. Apart from determining the influences of exposure prior to conception and during pre- and postnatal life, the investigators examined the importance of vitamin D exposure during specific seasons and trimesters, by comparing disease incidence among individuals born before and after the fortification. Additionally, a validated method was used to determine neonatal vitamin D status using stored dried blood spots (DBS) from individuals who develop the aforementioned disease entities as adults and their time and gender-matched controls. Unparalleled, the study will help determine the effects of vitamin D exposure during critical periods in life. There are a sufficient number of individuals to verify any effects during different gestation phases and seasons of the year. The results, which will change our current understanding of the significance of vitamin D, will enable new research in related fields, including interventional research designed to assess supplementation needs for different subgroups of pregnant women. Also, other health outcomes can subsequently be studied to generate multiple new interdisciplinary health research opportunities involving vitamin D.

Background: Previous studies have confirmed that most patients with idiopathic REM sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD) eventually develop neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, REM sleep without atonia (RSWA), a hallmark of RBD feature, is a significant predictor of development of neurodegenerative diseases in patients with iRBD. Some preliminary studies have implied that isolated RSWA in the absence of RBD symptoms may also indicate neurodegeneration. However, this speculation needs to be confirmed by more refined study with sophisticated measures in both RSWA and markers of neurodegeneration Objectives: 1) to determine the differences in striatal dopamine transmission and other markers of neurodegeneration among individuals with isolated RSWA and healthy controls; 2) to examine the correlation of severity of RSWA with striatal dopamine transmission. Design: Case-control study Setting: Community-based sample Participants: 1) iRBD first degree relatives with isolated RSWA (n=18) 2) iRBD first degree relatives without isolated RSWA (n=18) 3) Community-based health controls without isolated RSWA (n=18) Main outcome measures: The dopamine transmission as measured by triple-tracer PET/ CT imaging protocol including 18F-DOPA, 11C-Raclopride and 18F-FDG images; Brain glucose metabolism and neurocognitive measures; Severity of EMG activity during REM sleep

The aim of this study is the efficacy of a docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-rich dietary supplement in improving key dementia-related mechanisms and cognitive function in older people at risk for dementia. This is a randomized placebo-controlled, 24 weeks, phase 2 study of Omega 3 in people with increased risk of dementia. The aim is to explore the effects of DHA on cognitive performance (CERAD 10 word memory tests, TMT A/B, Stroop Color-Word, FAS, VOSP silhouettes, Cantab-test (RT, PAL, SWT)), biological markers (blood: CRP, NLF, TNF-alpha, MCI-1, PBMC Abeta middomain, Omega-3-index, IL, CSF: NLF, sTREM2, Ab 1-42, total and -phospho-tau) and imaging (MRI: standard structural DDI protocol including Freesurfer and WML measurements, DTI and ASL).

People with mental health conditions (MHC) often face significant barriers in obtaining personal valued social roles and feeling a sense of belonging to their community. With the growing emphasis on community integration, and the fact that the vast majority of people with MHC live in the community, there is an effort to develop interventions and services which focus on recovery, wellbeing, and community integration, to reclaim "right to a safe, dignified, and personal and gratifying life in the community despite his or her psychiatric condition" (Davidson, Tondora, Lawless, O'Connell, & Rowe, 2009, p.11).Music therapy (MT) has been practiced for many decades with growing evidence for its effectiveness in different populations, including people with MHC. Music has pivotal influences on socialization and in building inter-personal skills and has the potential to be effective as a community-based therapeutic approach in bringing people together in a shared experience, an important step towards integration back to the community. MT encourages verbal and non-verbal interactions and offers opportunity to practice interpersonal skills, build relationships and peruse common goals. The proposed study has a potential to shed additional light on the processes of recovery in people living in the community with MHC who are participating in group CoMT. Although the study will pinpoint to the domains where MT was mostly studied before (social skills, group cohesion and emotional expression), it is unique in two main aspects: Majority of previous MT studies on people with MHC were testing short-term MT interventions in in-patient brief settings. This has limited significance in understanding the generalization of MT into everyday life and promoting wellbeing. In the proposed study, on the other hand, I will try to evaluate the significance of recovery-oriented long-term group CoMT in the community, where most people live, focusing on behavioral domains where MT is expected to benefit most: The client's social skills development, group cohesion and emotional expression (affect improvement). This study, to my knowledge, is the first that is based on longitudinal quantitative micro-analysis of filmed video sessions. This approach bypasses the participants subjective reaction to a qualitative interview (which by itself is important) allowing an additional un-biased angle of observation on the interaction process (assuming that the participants may ignore the presence of the video camera over time).

About 1 in 100 people will experience an episode of psychosis. Some people will only experience one 'psychotic episode' and about a quarter of people make a full recovery. Others will have recurring periods of problems ('relapses'), perhaps at times of particular stress. As people often find psychosis distressing, this study looks at ways to help them stay well in the future. There is growing evidence that 'early signs' interventions can prevent relapses of psychosis. Early signs are things that might happen when people start to become unwell. For example some people start to sleep badly when they are becoming unwell. Most people with psychosis can identify early signs emerging in the weeks before relapse. In early signs interventions, service users are taught to recognise early signs that their mental health may be deteriorating so that they can take action to avoid becoming unwell. Although early signs interventions show promise, the investigators suggest that they can be improved by more accurate assessment of relapse risk. This might be achieved by monitoring 'basic symptoms' in addition to conventional early signs of relapse. Basic symptoms are subtle, subclinical disturbances in one's experience of oneself and the world. Typical basic symptoms include: changes in perceptions, such as increased vividness of colour vision; impaired tolerance to certain stressors; difficulty finding or understanding common words. In this study the investigators want to design and test a mobile phone app to help monitor basic symptoms. They hope that the app might help service users to stay well in the future. During the study the investigators will ask participants to use the app once a week for 6 months. At the end of the study they will interview them about their experiences of using the phone app and participating in the study.