Active clinical trials for "Mental Disorders"

The purpose of this study is to determine whether multi-dimensional wellness program (diet, art and biofield therapy) influences the quality of life for those with different health status in Japan.

A major goal for the Department of Veterans Affairs is to end Veteran homelessness by 2015. The VA's largest homelessness initiative is the joint Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) Supportive Housing program (HUD-VASH), which has been expanded greatly over recent years via the allocation of 30,000 Housing First vouchers between 2008 and 2010 and increased funding to hire 1,000 new program case managers. However, recent expansion has resulted in a number of implementation challenges including delays in the distribution of housing vouchers and dropout among program participants (25% of those housed in HUD-VASH drop out within a year). Much of this dropout can be attributed to untreated issues facing many Veterans enrolled in HUD-VASH. The most common among these untreated issues are mental health and substance use disorders. The presence of these disorders is due in large part to the fact that much of HUD-VASH case management focuses on housing placement and maintenance, with limited attention to mental health, substance abuse, and other related psychosocial issues, which when left untreated, negatively impacts voucher distribution and housing stability. This project will test an implementation model-Getting To Outcomes (GTO)-designed to assist in the delivery of an intervention for Veterans with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (MISSION-Vet) in the HUD-VASH program. The proposed study will compare implementation of MISSION-Vet currently being planned through VA Office of Patient Care Services to an enhanced approach using the GTO model. Thus, this project can contribute to ending all Veteran homelessness by 2015, a pledge made by President Obama.

The investigators propose to recruit patients who have experienced a recent first episode of psychosis who have a chart diagnosis of Schizophrenia, Schizophrenifom, Schizoaffective Disorder, Psychosis NOS, or Bipolar I Disorder with psychotic features and self identify themselves as a current cigarette smoker. Aiding this population with smoking cessation is crucial as the majority of people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (50-90%) smoke, which is leading to early mortality. While these individuals can benefit from standard evidence-based treatment, these treatments are underutilized. Web based programs, such as the EDSS and thetruth.com, can provide education and motivational tools to help people with a recent onset of psychosis use evidence-based smoking cessation treatments. This study aims to test these two web-based programs among young people with a recent episode of psychosis for usability and likeability and to explore whether use of these two programs will motivate users to seek smoking cessation treatment or to engage in other quitting behaviors in the month following use of the programs. Information gathered from this proposal will be used to help the researchers decide whether either of these two programs will be reasonable to include in a larger study of a comprehensive treatment for individuals with first episode psychosis.

Patients with mood disorder or psychotic disorder will be given handheld devices with personal health records to educate, monitor and deliver customizable healthcare tools based on their personal needs. The use of technology has great potential to deliver care more effectively and efficiently. No actual information is on the handheld device - it is accessed from a secure site behind hospital firewalls.

This study will provide psychosocial training to general health care providers to help them provide better care to children with mental health problems.

The purpose of this pilot project is to test the effectiveness of three 20 minute health education modules on patient empowerment, patient activation and retention in care.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of multi-family group psychoeducation (MFGP) on the families of people living with a diagnosis of substance abuse disorder on patients and their families. It has been reported that families are affected by substance-related disorders. Families that are the target of psychoeducational practices for families are defined as follows: "Family" is a relative, biological family member, partner, close friend, or any other support person or a person who sees herself/himself as the patient's family. In most studies, it has been stated that including family members in the patient's treatment provides additional benefits to substance use services and makes long-term recovery more likely. Studies have found that MFGP is associated with fewer relapses and hospitalizations, improved family well-being, increased participation in vocational rehabilitation, higher employment rates, and reduced costs of care. Multifamily psychoeducation aims to increase the family's knowledge about substance use disorders and to include them in the recovery process. Study Design:The intervention involves 8-week MFGP for families. During the 8 sessions, it was planned to conduct face-to-face psychoeducational group work, with each session lasting 75 minutes on average. The MFGP to be covered during 8 sessions was created by evaluating MFGP modules from 3 different sources. Intervention protocols included these subjects: First session: Psychoeducation on Substance-Abuse Disorders Second session: Effects of Addiction on the Family Third session: illness management Fourth session: Supporting Recovery Fifth session: Improving Stress Coping Skills/Stress Management Sixth session: Developing Problem-Solving Skills Seventh session: Strengthening the Family Eighth session: Working with Stigma Study population: Families of people suffering from substance abuse disorders were studied. Expected outcomes: An increase in general and social functionality, a decrease in depression, anxiety, and self-stigma, an increase in quality of life, and treatment compliance are expected for patients. For families, it is expected that depression, anxiety, self-stigma, and caregiving burnout decrease, funcitonalty and quality of life increases and people gain skills to cope with stress.

Adults with serious mental illness (SMI) frequently have unmet medical needs which place them at risk for adverse health outcomes. While there are proven ways to manage and/or prevent serious medical conditions common among this population, information is needed to understand their impact on outcomes that matter most for patients, particularly in community mental health centers (CMHCs) where most adults with SMI receive their care and rural areas where locating and receiving health care services can be challenging. The investigators will test two promising ways for promoting the health, wellness, and recovery of adults with SMI. One way will help patients manage their health and health care through self-management strategies, including the use of a web portal, and peer support (patient self-directed care) and the other through interactions with nurses during clinic visits (provider-supported integrated care). The investigators will compare the two interventions on three primary patient-centered outcomes (i.e. patient activation in care, health status, engagement in primary/specialty care). The investigators hypothesize that: Patient self-directed care will result in improvement in patient activation. Provider-supported integrated care will result in greater improvement in frequency in primary/specialty care visits. Both interventions will result in significant improvements in the three primary outcomes. The investigators will collect information from patients, caregivers, and clinic staff at different points in time during the study. Patients will be asked to complete questionnaires and additional data on their service use will be gathered. Some patients and providers will also be interviewed about their experiences with care. The investigators will examine these data to learn if, how, and why the new services improve outcomes over time. This information will help us understand patient and other stakeholder views about the services and, if appropriate, ensure their continued and/or expanded availability.

This is a prospective study using a concierge model of customized adherence enhancement and long-acting injectable antipsychotic (CAL-Concierge) in 30 individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder at risk for treatment non-adherence and for homelessness. Like the CAE-L approach, CAL-Concierge is expected to improve health outcomes among the most vulnerable of populations with schizophrenia but even more importantly, will demonstrate that it can be used to improve the efficiency and quality of care in typical practice settings.

The study aims to test the effectiveness of a nurse-led psycho-education program based on motivational interviewing technique for Chinese patients with first-onset mental illness over a 12-month follow-up. A randomized controlled trial will be conducted with 180 Chinese patients with schizophrenia newly referred to one outpatient clinic in Hong Kong. They will be randomly assigned to either the eight-session nurse-led psycho-education program or usual psychiatric outpatient care (both n=90). The patients' general and mental health, illness insight, self-efficacy, services utilization, and hospitalization rates were measured at recruitment and one week, six months and 12 months post-intervention. Note: Those who were approached in the clinic and not eligible to participate in this trial will be invited to participate in another controlled trial. The controlled trial tests the effects of a self-help problem-solving based bibliotherapy program (SPBB) for Chinese family caregivers in recent onset psychosis (not more than 1 year onset) at one psychiatric clinic, in comparison to routine outpatient service and family support (control group) for 116 randomly selected family caregivers of outpatients with psychotic disorders over a 6-month follow-up.)