Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

This study is dedicated to achieving a better understanding of how to identify patterns that indicate someone might be at high risk for relapse in schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The investigators are utilizing smartphone technology along with on body sensors to achieve this goal. The study will observe participants behavior in their natural environment for a period of 16 weeks or until a signal of relapse is obtained. Participants will also complete scales in a clinical research environment biweekly.

Differences in pain perception between subjects with and without psychiatric illness may be influenced by the individual experience, and not primarily by the pathology, although the pathological frame may amplify it.The aim of this study is to establish if the characteristics of experimental pain feeling are influenced by the past pain experience, anxiety and emotion, independently from the diagnosis. The pain experience will be evaluated by an inventory of the potentially painful situations that one can come across through the life, to determine the following points : Number of painful events in the past, number of painful points during the last 6 months, number of painful events lasting more than 6 months, sum of pain intensities (graduated with Visual Analogic Scale VAS from 0 to 10), sum of gravity (evaluated from 0 to 5), the category of pain experience qualification (mostly affective, mostly sensorial, or both). Schizophrenic, depressed and control participants will be recruited, and their pain experience throughout life will be put it in relation to experimental pain tests results (pressure application, ischemia induction), anxiety and emotion (Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale HAD), catastrophizing (Pain Catastrophizing Scale PCS), Heart Rate (HR) variation, Blood Pressure (BP) variation.

Depression in patients with schizophrenia is common. Several factors was found to be associated with depression including medical illness, quality of life, positive symptoms, and typical antipsychotics. The Calgary depression scale of schizophrenia (CDSS) is commonly used for screening depression in schizophrenia,however; the Thai version of CDSS has not been validated. This study aims to a.) test the reliability and validity of the Thai version of Calgary depression scale of schizophrenia (CDSS) and b.) identify the prevalence and factors associated with depression in patients with schizophrenia including quality of life, type of antipsychotic drugs, and severity of schizophrenia in 60 patients with schizophrenia at the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.

This study aims at finding endophenotypes of schizophrenia at neuronal level by obtaining stem cells which is derived from adipose cells of subjects with heavy genetic loading for schizophrenia then differentiating them into neuronal cells.

Scientific Background Emotional Intelligence (EI) as a part of social cognition is a rather new area of interest which focuses on personality traits and abilities enabling people to cope with both their own feelings as well as those of others. The "Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional-Intelligence-Test" (MSCEIT) (1) represents a valid and reliable instrument which exclusively covers the emotional components of social cognition. Recent findings indicate, that social cognitive impairments are useful vulnerability indicators and that EI could be an endophenotype for schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder (BD I). To confirm the endophenotype theory, studies concerning EI in relatives of schizophrenia and bipolar patients are needed. To date, studies on EI in BD patients as well as in first degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia or BD haven't been conducted yet. Accordingly, the current study focuses on the four categories assessed by the MSCEIT and aims to compare the task performance of patients, their first degree relatives and healthy control subjects. We assume that the task performance of relatives lies between that of patients and controls. The confirmation of this assumption would verify the trait marker hypothesis and could be a next step to identify a heritable endophenotype for schizophrenia and BD. Hypotheses Compared to healthy control subjects patients suffering from schizophrenia or BD I show deficits in EI. Siblings of patients with schizophrenia or BD I show deficits in EI and their task performance lies between that of patients and healthy controls. Deficits in EI are more pronounced in schizophrenia patients than in patients with BD I and are more pronounced in siblings of schizophrenia patients than in siblings of patients with BD I. Independently of diagnosis, deficits in EI affect patients' functional and subjective outcomes. Methods Emotional Intelligence will be examined using the MSCEIT in patients with schizophrenia, siblings of schizophrenia patients, patients with BD I, siblings of BD I patients and healthy volunteers matched for age, sex, and educational level. Structured clinical interviews according to DSM-IV (M.I.N.I. + SCID II) will be carried out to assure the diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder as well as to detect (comorbid) Axis I and Axis II psychiatric disorders (patients, siblings, control subjects). Functional outcome will be assessed by using the GAF (Global Assessment of Functioning Scale) and the PSP (Personal and Social Performance Scale), subjective quality of life will be examined using the BELP (Berliner Lebensqualiätsprofil). The MWT-B (Multiple choice vocabulary test) will be used to assess premorbid intelligence.

Background: - A special brain circuit is important for helping us keeping an eye open for things that are going on around us, even when we are not directly paying attention to them. This circuit seems to work differently in people with schizophrenia than in other people, which may explain specific deficits with broad monitoring observed in people with schizophrenia. Researchers want to compare brain function in people with schizophrenia and healthy volunteers to find out more about how these brain circuits work and affect attention. Objectives: - To study how the brain performs broad visual monitoring in people with schizophrenia. Eligibility: Individuals between 18 to 55 years of age who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Healthy volunteers between 18 and 55. Design: Participants will be screened with physical and psychological exams. They will have a medical history. Tests for drug and alcohol use will also be done. Participants will have two study visits. The first is a training visit and the second is a scanning visit. At the training visit, participants will practice computer-based tests of focus, memory, and concentration. They will also answer questions about mood, psychiatric symptoms, and smoking habits. At the scanning visit, participants will perform the computer-based tasks that they practiced at the training visit. They will have magnetic resonance imaging while they perform these tasks.

The principle aim of the project is to identify the key brain circuits associated with smoking and especially smoking in high risk population. The investigators hope that the study will provide concrete biomarkers for new therapeutic development and ultimately reducing the smoking related health burden.

The purpose of this study is to provide accurate, reliable information on schizophrenia clinical management in order to detect unmet medical needs of this disease in terms of: Patient characteristics. Diagnostic and treatment approaches: initial and subsequent.

This study is aimed to evaluate the bipolar disorder symptoms in patients presented with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or recurrent depression. Bipolar disorder is a group of mood disorders characterised by elevated or irritable mood episodes in patient's lifetime history accompanied by some additional symptoms. In this study modern bipolar disorders screening/assessment instruments will be used to explore the prevalence of bipolarity symptoms in patients who never been diagnosed with bipolar disorders. The results of this study could be useful for more accurate assessment of bipolar disorders prevalence in psychiatric patient population, could help to improve the diagnostics of bipolar disorders and management of bipolar patients.

Observational, short-term prospective, multicenter study to assess psychometric properties of the Spanish version of SWN-K scale in patients with schizophrenia.