Active clinical trials for "Mental Disorders"

Tobacco use disorder is a chronic disease. This is particularly true for people living with mental illness, who are more likely to smoke and make more unsuccessful quit attempts than those without. The current study is designed to test a package of two chronic disease management strategies to treatment tobacco in community mental health centers: regular provider interventions during routine mental healthcare visits, and proactive outreach by community mental health center staff to offer connections to tobacco cessation treatment. 50 patients at a community mental health center will receive provider intervention at their regular visits as well as 3 outreach calls over 9 months from trained staff to offer to connect them with stop smoking treatment. The investigators will measure the effect of these interventions on tobacco use over the next year.

The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Children (UP-C) is a transdiagnostic and emotion-focused cognitive-behavioral group intervention for children aged 6-12 years old with emotion disorders (i.e., anxious and/or mood disorders) and their parents. UP-C consists of 15 weekly group sessions and unifies cognitive-behavioral, contextual (e.g., mindfulness) and parental training techniques, for parents and children, aimed at reducing the intensity and frequency of strong and aversive emotional experiences in children and their clinical symptomatology. The present study aims to assess the feasibility, acceptability and efficacy of the UP-C in the Portuguese population in reducing children's anxiety/depression symptoms. It also aims to investigate which mechanisms explain the therapeutic change. Participants will be recruited at child mental health services and schools from Central Portugal and also through online dissemination of the study. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted in a sample of children aged 6-13 years old with emotional disorders and their parents in order to answer the critical question of whether the UP-C is more efficacious in reducing children's symptomatology than a psychoeducational group intervention (active control group). Once the eligibility criteria are met (assessed by the project researchers) parents and children will be randomly assigned to one of two study conditions: experimental group (i.e., children and parents who benefit from the UP-C program). control group (i.e., children who benefit from a psychoeducational intervention program, named "ABC of Emotions"). Parents and children from both groups will complete several psychometrically robust and developmentally appropriate measures at baseline (T0), mid-treatment (only at week 7 of the UP-C; T1), post treatment (T2) and at 3 months follow-up (T3).

The relationships we have in childhood affect how we relate to others across our life, including how safe or secure we feel. If our caregivers do not meet our needs well enough in childhood, this can lead to an 'insecure attachment style'. This means we may push others away or cling to them, but never feel fully safe or secure with them. This style is common in people who have mental health problems. This includes psychosis, when people have unusual experiences such as hearing voices others cannot hear. A lot of people with psychosis have difficult experiences with mental health services. This includes involuntary treatments, traumatic interactions and hospital stays, where they may think staff are trying to harm rather than help them. As a result they may not feel safe working with staff and they might re-experience the negative memories of these events. This is known as psychosis-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PR-PTSD) and can lead to ongoing problems. Imagery is often defined as mental pictures but it includes imagining our senses (smell, touch, taste) too. It can be a useful therapy tool to help people to work with difficult memories and can help them to feel more safe and secure. Research shows that this is helpful for people with psychosis and people who have been through trauma. Hence, it may be helpful for people with PR-PTSD. The study aims to see if it is viable to do a 6-session therapy using imagery to target PR-PTSD memories. The study will use a case series design where up to 12 people with psychosis will be able to try the therapy. They will be asked to complete questionnaires to understand any potential benefits of the therapy. The findings could inform the research and allow for further development of therapies in this area.

People experiencing psychosis might find social interactions stressful and avoid them. This can result in isolation and can affect relationships, employment and quality of life. Improving social functioning is a really important aspect of recovery. Facing social situations after the first episode of psychosis can be very difficult and provoke intense anxiety. However, research has shown that the earlier intervention is offered, the better the outcome. Therefore, improving therapies for people experiencing their first episode of psychosis is a key target for research. Virtual Reality presents a unique opportunity to bring real-life-type environments into a therapy session to help people to overcome their distress in social situations and make them feel less anxious. Virtual Reality assisted Therapy (VRT) provides a 'safe space' to practice strategies and techniques to help people work towards improving their social functioning, build new ways of coping with stress and assist them in their recovery. The study uses a standard CBT model and integrates a Virtual Reality environment into it to support exposure and behavioural experiments for social difficulties, which are a key component of treatment.

Occupational therapy interventions are often part of the treatment and rehabilitation services offered to people with mental illnesses. Occupational therapy can be an important contribution when the purpose is to promote participation in everyday activities that are meaningful for the individual. (1-3) There is limited evidence to support whether occupational therapy interventions for people with mental illnesses have an effect. (2,3) Based on principles from Lifestyle Redesign®, which is an evidence-based occupational therapy intervention for older people, a comparative qualitative study with participant experiences from various psychosocial rehabilitation efforts, and a dialogue-based collaboration with experienced occupational therapists and peer staff from community mental health centers, we developed a new recovery oriented occupational therapy intervention to people with disabilities due to mental illness. The intervention "Meaningful activities and recovery" (MA&R) - is an eight-month rehabilitation program. The aim of MA&R is to enable participation in activities that are meaningful to the individual. Project Meaningful Activities and Recovery (MA&R) is a clinical trial where the purpose is to compare the effects of: 1) "Meaningful activities and Recovery" (MA&R) in addition to standard care and 2) standard care as it is now offered to people with psychiatric disabilities. The design is a randomized clinical trial with self-reported assessments. Based on sample size calculation, 128 participants will be included in the trials. The primary endpoint is activity engagement, and the secondary effect goals are personal recovery, functioning and quality of life. Participants are followed up at the end of the intervention, after eight months.

The goal of this study is to pilot test a culturally tailored Family Psychoeducation model (KUPAA) for adults with psychotic disorders and their relatives that is appropriate for cultural settings inclusive of both traditional and biomedical ideas about mental illness and that incorporates relatives as co-facilitators of the intervention.

Approximately 60 chronic smokers with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who are motivated to try to quit smoking will be randomized to receive smoking cessation treatment with the FDA-approved medication, varenicline, delivered either a) at its standard dose and titration schedule (half of the participants) versus b) at a lower dose and slower titration schedule (the other half), for 12 weeks. All smokers will choose a target quit date sometime between 8 to 35 days after starting the medication. All participants will receive ten 30-minute sessions of a behavioral treatment called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Participants will be followed for an additional 12 weeks off study medication. The major endpoint is the feasibility of combining ACT with the different dosing strategies. Investigators will also conduct a blood test that measures the breakdown of nicotine in the body to explore whether that measure influences treatment response and side effects.

Emotion regulation has been identified as an important transdiagnostic factor in the treatment of mental health disorders. This study aims to examine, for the first time, REMOTION, a novel blended therapy intervention aimed at reducing symptom severity and improving emotion regulation of patients in an outpatient psychotherapy setting. REMOTION is an internet based intervention that is administered as an add-on to psychotherapy. This study aims to investigate feasibility and also potential effectiveness of REMOTION in an outpatient setting. Participants will be randomly assigned to the study conditions. Outcomes are assessed at baseline, after six weeks and after twelve weeks.

This study evaluates the effect and experience of peer-support in internet mediated ACT (Acceptance and Commitment therapy) in an explorative pilot study with mixed method design conducted in primary care. Peer-supporters are certified support persons with personal experience of mental health problems and the process of rehabilitation, which becomes professionally active in care and support to patients in their recovery

To assess the effect of pimavanserin on the activities of daily living in subjects with Parkinson's Disease Psychosis