Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

An exacerbated response to stress mediated by activation of the Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Adrenocortical (HPA) axis is thought to play an important role in the onset, worsening and relapse of schizophrenia. Subjects at risk for schizophrenia (unaffected siblings of patients) displayed an intermediate hyperreactivity to stress as compared with patients and healthy controls. Symptoms of schizophrenia can be reduced with noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) applied over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Importantly, this same DLPFC NIBS protocol can modulate decision making processes and modulate biological reactivity to stress by decreasing salivary cortisol concentration in acute stress condition.

Immunology combined to neurobiology now offer prominent tools to yield biomarkers, so far missing in psychiatry, and to design innovative treatment approaches based on the discovery of new molecular and cellular targets. As Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia are now known to be significantly associated with neuro-inflammation, the project I-GIVE will combine multidisciplinary approaches (clinical, viral, immunological, genetic) to explore a global hypothesis placing the Human Endogenous Retro-Virus, HERV-W, at the crossroads between susceptibility to environmental factors (such as winter-spring births, infections, urbanicity…) and genetic factors controlling immune responses. Thus I-GIVE will allow identification of new biomarkers and their correlation with clinical profiles and immuno-inflammatory/immuno-genetic markers, and description of patho-physiological mechanisms of a psychiatric disorder. In addition, I-GIVE should help to design innovative treatments and foster personalized psychiatry tailored to the needs of each patient. Notably, monoclonal antibodies anti-HERV-W Env will be assessed in a preclinical model for their ability to slow, stop, or even reverse the progression of the psychosis in patients. I-GIVE project should thus lead to major results that will have strong impacts on the scientific community, pharmaceutical industries and, in a longer term, on improvement of patients suffering Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia and their family.

Social impairments are core features of schizophrenia that lead to poor outcome. Social skills and competence improve quality of life and protect against stress-related exacerbation of symptoms, while supporting resilience, interpersonal interactions, and social affiliation. To improve outcome, it is necessary to remediate social deficits. Existing psychosocial interventions are moderately effective but the effort-intensive nature (high burden), low adherence, and weak transfer of skills to everyday life present significant hurdles toward recovery. Thus, there is a dire need to develop effective, engaging and low-burden social interventions for people with schizophrenia that will result in better compliance rates and functional outcome. In a previous pilot study, the investigators tested the effectiveness of a novel adaptive virtual reality (VR) intervention in improving targeted social cognitive function (social attention, as indexed by eye scanning patterns) in individuals with schizophrenia. 10 sessions of 1-hour VR intervention were sufficient to engage the target mechanism of social attention and improve negative symptoms. Acceptability and compliance were very high among the participants. ' The next phase, supported by a R33 grant will compare the VR social skills training with a control condition. This new protocol includes a control condition for the exposure to computerized training across the 10 sessions and incidental exposure to social interactions (i.e. interactions with experimenters twice a week for 5 weeks) by including a control condition, which involves computerized brain fitness training for 10 sessions.

The present longitudinal study aims to investigate the impact of lurasidone treatment in recent-onset psychosis patients. The effects of lurasidone will be studied primarily in terms of structural and myelin modifications, in relation to clinical outcomes, before and after treatment and in healthy controls. Furthermore, neuropsychological tests will be used to evaluate changes in cognitive performance.

This study will investigate the effects of intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (iTBS) on natural oscillatory frequency of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and working memory in early-course schizophrenia (EC-SCZ). Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) will be used to evoke oscillatory activity, and EEG will record the responses of EC-SCZ participants. A working memory task will also be incorporated in order to determine how DLPFC natural frequency (NF) is related to working memory performance. iTBS (active or sham) will be administered, then the oscillatory activity of DLPFC and working memory performance will be reassessed. The overarching goal is to determine whether iTBS can acutely enhance the oscillatory activity of the DLPFC and to evaluate the relationship between changes in the DLPFC and working memory performance.

As a result of the positive and negative symptoms that occur in schizophrenia, patients with schizophrenia may experience negative emotions more frequently than individuals with other mental problems. Since these emotions can trigger psychotic symptoms, there is a need to develop effective emotion regulation strategies to be applied to patients with schizophrenia. Aim: In this study, it was aimed to examine the effect of emotion recognition and expression program on alexithymia and emotion expression in patients with schizophrenia.

Levetiracetam (LEV: (S)-α-ethyl-2-oxo-pyrrolidine acetamide) is an anticonvulsant/antiepileptic drug. The specific aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of low-dose LEV in reducing hippocampal activity in schizophrenia. The investigators also hypothesize that LEV will improve neurocognition in participants with schizophrenia.

15 stable patients diagnosed with schizophrenia take 100 mg of VLT-015 once a day, 200 mg of VLT-015 once a day and 200 mg of VLT-015 on two consecutive days with an interval of 24 hours between doses. PK parameters are measured, tolerability and safety of the product are evaluated.

This study will use a systematic music therapy intervention on patients with mental illness trying to help them with their internalized stigma.

Patients with schizophrenia , who visit frenquently day-care or day-care activities clinics, often experience difficulties of daily living and cognitive deficits. Living independently is a key for recovery. Cognitive remediation is a therapy which reduces deficit and improves daily living. Nowadays no program exists targeting neurocognitive functions in virtual reality which could mimic everyday life in a virtual town. Hypotheses : Persons with schizophrenia experience difficulties in daily living and disabilities to plan in everyday life. PLANI-REV program, a serious game with a navigation in a virtual town, in a 15 weekly group sessions could reduce these difficulties compared to the initial assessment. This improvement could be maintained 6 months after the end of the program. PLANI-REV could also improve prospective memory, attention, working memory, and visuospatial organization. PLANI-REV could induce a clinical improvement, as well as better perception of self-efficiency, self esteem, quality of life, and conversation skills.