Active clinical trials for "Psychotic Disorders"

This is a screening study aimed at estimating the frequency of antipsychotic non-compliance in patients with a history of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit. Levels of the antipsychotics risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, aripiprazole, and paliperidone will be drawn in patients presenting the emergency room who are acutely psychotic, require admission to an inpatient hospital, have a history of psychosis, and have previously been prescribed one of the study drugs. Levels will then be analyzed to determine the frequency and severity of non-compliance in this population.

The overall goal of this project is to identify intermediate phenotypes for psychosis across the schizophrenia and bipolar disorders boundary with implications for future genetic studies. Recent studies provide considerable evidence that schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder may share overlapping etiologic determinants. Identifying disease-related genetic effects is a major focus in schizophrenia and bipolar research, with enormous implications for diagnosis and treatment for these two disorders. Efforts have been multifaceted, with the ultimate goal of describing causal paths from specific genetic variants, to changes in neuronal functioning, to altered brain anatomy, to behavioral and functional impairments. Parallel efforts have identified and refined several alternative endophenotypes that are stable, heritable, have (partly) known biological substrates, and are associated with psychosis liability. Although many such endophenotypes have been individually studied in schizophrenia, and to a lesser extent in bipolar disorder, no study has comprehensively assessed a broad panel of these markers in the two disorders with parallel recruitment, and the extent to which they mark independent aspects of psychosis risk, or their overlap in the two disorders. In this research project, we will examine a broad panel of putative endophenotypes in affected individuals and their first degree, biological relatives in order to: 1) characterize the degree of familial phenotypic overlap between schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorders; 2) identify patterns of endophenotypes unique to the two disorders; and, 3) contrast the heritability of endophenotypes across the disorders. We will obtain measures of neurophysiology (e.g., eye tracking, P50 gating, PPI, and P300), neurocognition (e.g., attention/vigilance, episodic and working memory), and brain structure (e.g., volumes of gray and white matter in specified brain regions). Blood samples will also be collected and stored for formal DNA linkage analyses using the independent phenotypes identified above. All volunteers will also be given the option to donate dermal biopsies for future research studies. Establishing similarities and differences in the endophenotypic signatures within schizophrenia and bipolar families will provide important insights for future genetic studies, and clarify concepts about common and distinct aspects of pathophysiology, potentially meaningful heterogeneity with disorders, and the clinical boundaries of the two most common psychotic disorders in adult psychiatry. This line of investigation will potentially impact our conceptualization of psychotic disorders, help us make critical strides to identify the pathophysiology of psychosis, and guide development of new specific treatments targeting particular deficits.

Older adults with schizophrenia are a growing segment of the population yet their physical health status is poor. In order to design effective interventions, the contributing factors must be understood. Current data suggest the side effects of psychiatric medications, sociodemographic factors, and health care disparities are a few of the reasons for the poor physical health. There are only limited data on the impact of psychiatric symptomatology and neurocognition on the physical health of this population. These limited data indicate that worse symptomatology and poorer neurocognition may negatively impact physical functioning, a critical component to optimal physical health. The purpose of this pilot study is to begin to fill this knowledge gap by: 1. examining the relationship between neurocognitive function and physical function and 2. Examining the relationship between schizophrenia symptoms and physical function. 3. Examining the relationship between serum Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and physical function. Using a descriptive correlational design, 50 older adults (55+) with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder will be assessed. Bivariate associations will be used to examine the relationship between key variables including schizophrenia symptoms as measured by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), neurocognitive function as measured with the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB), Physical Function as measured objectively by the Timed Get Up and Go (TGUG) test and subjectively with the physical component summary subscale of the 12-item short form health survey (SF-12), and serum BDNF. These pilot data will lay the foundation for a future health promoting intervention.

The purpose of this study is to examine the barriers and facilitators of implementing Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) in Norwegian mental health services.

Objective: To evaluate whether or not cases treated with Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) facilitate healthcare cost reduction, whether any observed reduction is greater than that of a control group and whether any such gains would be maintained in follow up. Design: A quasi-experimental design was employed in which pre and post healthcare cost and usage data were extracted for all ISTDP treated cases from 1999 to 2008 and compared to parallel measures of a control group of cases referred but never treated.

We hope to learn more about the biology of psychiatric illness with the hope of improving the diagnosis and treatment of such psychiatric conditions as major depression.

Observational study aimed to describe the adherence in a population of adolescents and children treated on quetiapine from a first psychotic episode whose more important secondary objective is to identify possible predictive factors influencing the adherence to treatment with Quetiapine

The purpose of this study is to learn more about the relationship between serious mental illness and the detection and management of diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions. Patients who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia are at an increased risk for developing diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions such as impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose. In addition, novel antipsychotics have also been linked to impaired glucose metabolism and increased incidence of diabetes. The medical management of these patients may be difficult ot achieve through standard family practice. The objectives of this project are to: screen a sample of this high-risk population using an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT), and to provide multidisciplinary team support to those identified as having diabetes or a pre-diabetic condition.

Medications like olanzapine have been associated with the development of weight gain and diabetes in some patients. It is not known if the increased risk of developing diabetes is a direct effect on insulin or simply related to weight gain. We hope to learn in this study whether or not olanzapine directly slows down insulin secretion from the pancreas, thereby increasing the risk of developing diabetes.

This is a safety study evaluating the subjects who participated in previous Organon trials of the drug Org 24448. Patients will undergo a Screening visit, 1 or 2 Evaluation visits, and a possible Follow-Up period. During the visits, study tests, including echocardiograms, will be performed to summarize cardiac functioning.