Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

This PPG entitled "A Study on Psychopathological Progress of Early Schizophrenia-like Disorder (SOPRES)" is designed to study the "Progress of Psychopathology" of pre-psychotic state of schizophrenia (SCH) using a prospective follow-up design. Based on the neurodevelopment hypothesis of schizophrenia, the neurobiological dysfunctions, such as cognitive impairment, neurophysiological dysfunction, neuroanatomical pathology, is the core pathology. The pathology may exist prior to onset of psychotic symptoms, and at post psychotic state. It also presents in the first-degree relatives. SCH is mainly with a gradual mode of onset, ranging from pre-schizotypal (or pan-neurotic state), schizotypal, prodromal to frank psychotic SCH (DSM-IV criteria) state. Up to the present time, there are arbitray criteria for diagnosing schizotypal disorder and frank psychiatric schizophrenia, but the valid clinical assessment method of pre-schizotypal and prodromal state is still controversial. The psychopathological progress from pre-schizotypal to frank psychotic SCH state is still unclear. In this SOPRES, we intend to establish a set of valid clinical assessments for defining the cases of early SCH-like disorder [ESLD], to examine the clinical progression, such as conversion rate of psychosis from non-psychotic state in a prospective longitudinal follow-up; to validate the clinically defined cases of ESLD with different dimensions of neurobiological studies, including niacin skin flush test, neuropsychological, neurophysiological (such as prepulse inhibition [PPI], P50 inhibition [P50I]), and magnetic resonance spectrometry (MRS) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (TDI); to demonstrate the validity of the ESLD using the family genetic-epidemiological data and to explore the awareness, reaction, coping strategy, social stigma, and help seeking process of the patients and the families of ESLD. In order to achieve these goals, we designed this PPG of SOPRES, which comprises of 4 inter-locked projects and one core unit. Project No.1 is the "Clinical Phenomenological Follow-up Study of ELSD: Clinical Validity"; Project No. 2 is the "Validity Study of Neurobiological Tests of ELSD"; Project No. 3 is the "Validity Study of Family Genetic Study of ELSD"; and Project No. 4 is the "Awareness and Pathways of Help Seeking of ELSD". The only one core unit is designed for the purposed of monitoring research progress, communication among researchers such managing PPG research meeting, data management, and budget management and other research-related administrative secretary work. These 4 projects are integrated study approaches by means of (1) using the same samples; (2) study different levels of psychopathology, including clinical symptoms, neurobiological impairment, family genetic data, and psychosocial variables; and (3) mutual hypothesis testing. We expect that this SOPRES research will create a new frontier of SCH research in the fields of early intervention of SCH for preventing the recurrence of frank psychotic state of schizophrenia, and will provide the background for improving treatment outcome and quality of life of SCH.

The goals of this study is to determine (1) if differences in D2/3 receptor affinity states exist between medication-free subjects with SCH (MF-S) compared with healthy controls (HC), (2) the degree to which pre- and post-synaptic factors contribute to increased striatal dopamine (DA) signaling in MF-S and (3) to test the hypotheses that optimal DA transmission in the dorsal caudate (DCA) is necessary for normal working memory (WM) function.

Previous studies have shown that cardiorespiratory fitness (how well the heart and lungs are able to function during physical activity) is often reduced in people with psychosis. The goal of this research study is to test the hypothesis that aerobic exercise can lead to small changes in brain functioning that can influence visual perception and attention in psychosis. The type of aerobic exercise used in this study is called Sprint Interval Training, or "SIT". Information from this study will help to develop interventions that enhance cognition and maximize the quality of life for persons living with psychosis. The exercise procedure used is called SIT, which involves training rigorously on a stationary bike for a short period of time followed by a resting period.

Would be there any difference in dopamine synthesis between remitted clinical high risk subjects for psychosis and healthy control? What would happen to dopamine synthesis after antipsychotic discontinuation in clinical high risk subjects for psychosis? What about the dopamine synthesis in recurred clinical high risk subjects for psychosis after the discontinuation?

This is an observational, non-interventional study that will include two cohorts of patients with schizophrenia who initiated maintenance treatment during a schizophrenia-related hospitalisation or during the immediate three months after hospital discharge: patients who initiated maintenance treatment with AOM and patients who initiated maintenance treatment with any daily oral atypical AP.

Chinese version of the cognitive function test of schizophrenia (MCCB) . To explore a predictive model for long-term medication use in patients based on cognitive function

It is the goal of this study adherence and quality of life in a population of people suffering from schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and to analyze if these factors are influenced by treatment, support, social services, and residential treatment. The study population is drawn from the the cantons Glarus and Graubunden as well as Liechtenstein.

The aim of the protocol is to better understand the impairments in visual processing, as such impairments may induce social interaction difficulties in subjects with autism spectrum disorders (adults and children) and schizophrenia, like face exploration.The same protocol will be used for the three populations, each population being compared with matched controls. The explorations are designed to test two different hypotheses regarding the mechanisms of the visual perception difficulties of the two populations. Even though difficulties to extract the global form of objects have been described in both subjects with autism and schizophrenia, we will test two different hypotheses for the two populations. We will test the hypothesis that subjects with autism display an advantage for the processing of local information arising at an early level of processing, whereas disorders observed in patients with schizophrenia originate from attention disorders. The protocol includes three consecutive studies, each one being applied in each of the three populations.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness, which has a prodromal phase of 1-2 years prior to the onset of the illness. During the prodromal phase, patients might show maladaptation and/or poor social functioning. However, these early symptom of schizophrenia might be overlooked by patients and their families. At that period, patients might strive to improve their social interactions and social functioning. However, the efforts might further create their stress level on everyday life, which can actually accelerate the illness onset of schizophrenia. In other words, the efforts would worsen the pathophysiologic changes in the brain, which can result in the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Previous researches found that the critical period for treatment of schizophrenia is the early phase of illness onset, especially the first two or three years. Delay treatment would worsen the illness. To this extent, early treatment would bring to a better prognosis as well as minimize the costs of individuals, families and society. In other words, early interventions not only can prevent relapse, it also can benefit patients' psychosocial adjustments. However, researches found that the average duration of untreated psychosis is 25.2 months in Taiwan, which indicates the phenomena of delay treatment and this trend might result in missing the critical treatment period. This is a two years study aiming to establish an early intervention program for patients with schizophrenia. In the first year, it aims to understand the phenomena of psychiatric care services utilization for patients with schizophrenia, special emphasis will be on the delay treatment and pluralistic health seeking process. In the second year, it aims to establish an early intervention program. The results of this research would contribute to in-service trainings, service providing, and policy making of psychiatric services.

Patients with schizophrenia have a higher risk of committing violent crimes than the general population, and the relative risk of violence against others is four times higher than the general population. Violence is a major public health problem because it often leads to poor prognosis, readmission and stigma in patients with schizophrenia. MRI studies on violent behavior in schizophrenia are relatively few. These studies have found that violence is primarily associated with dysfunction in the ventral prefrontal and temporal limbic systems. Structural MRI found that violent behavior in schizophrenia was associated with increased volume of white matter in caudate nucleus, left orbitofrontal gyrus and right orbitofrontal gyrus. However, the current research results in this field are uneven, the methods are not consistent, and there is a lack of breakthrough progress, which needs to be integrated and deepened urgently. If the violent behavior of the patients with schizophrenia could be predicted by magnetic resonance imaging, it would be a revolutionary try. By doing so, the investigators can strengthen the treatment of these patients and reduce the occurrence of violence. Based on previous studies, the investigators believe that violent schizophrenics exhibit recognizable imaging characteristics under structural phase, resting state, negative emotional images and natural stimuli models. Anomalies in a particular mode may be subtle and difficult to identify, but when multiple different modes are integrated, a significant and characteristic set of imaging markers will be present. This study will use the multivariate model of machine learning method, detection brain activation patterns under different situations among patients with violence. The investigators are going to study imaging biomarkers, and try to predict the possibility of onset of violence among schizophrenia patients, thus reduce the risks of violence.