Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

An open-label, multi-center, 6-week, sequential cohort study designed to determine the safety and tolerability of two dose ranges of BL-1020 in hospitalized subjects with chronic schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorder

The project will investigate the use of a novel technique, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia and patients with depression. tDCS involves the application of an extremely weak continuous electrical current to the brain through the placement of anode and a cathode on the scalp. The electrical current is generally completely imperceptible after initial period of tingling which takes about 30 seconds. Stimulation under the anode appears to increase brain activity where as stimulation under the cathode has the opposite effect. This research plan involves two clinical trials: A study using tDCS to treat both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The negative symptoms of schizophrenia such as lack of motivation and energy appear to arise due to a lack of activity in frontal brain areas. Positive symptoms such as hallucinations and confused thoughts may arise through over activity of brain areas more on the side and towards the back of the brain called the temporal cortex. We plan to apply tDCS such that it can simultaneously increased activity in these frontal brain areas and reduce activity over temporal cortex. We will compare active stimulation to a placebo condition which involves turning the stimulator off after 30 seconds. The capacity to target multiple symptom clusters is unique with this type of brain stimulation. The study using tDCS in treatment resistant depression builds on a work with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS techniques in depression seem to work which increased left frontal brain activity or decrease right frontal brain activity. tDCS will be used to do the same thing with the anode used to increase left-sided brain activity and the cathode used to simultaneously decreased right-sided brain activity. tDCS is potentially a better tolerated procedure than TMS and does not appear to have the same risk of seizure induction. Importantly, the equipment is quite inexpensive and this may prove to be an extremely safe and effective low-cost treatment for psychiatric disorders in Third World countries.

This multi-center, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of RO4917838 in participants with persistent, predominant negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Participants, on stable treatment with antipsychotics, will be randomized to receive daily oral doses of RO4917838 or matching placebo for 56 weeks (treatment period 1 of 24 weeks and treatment period 2 of 32 weeks), followed by an optional treatment extension for up to 3 years. After 52 weeks, participants who were originally randomized to an active treatment will be randomly assigned to receive either placebo or continue on the originally assigned study treatment for 4 weeks washout period (Week 52 to Week 56) for the assessment of potential withdrawal effects in a blinded manner using participants staying on active treatment as a control. Participants initially randomized to placebo will remain on placebo. After 56 weeks, participants who were switched to placebo in the washout period will return to their blinded, active treatment arm.

A multicenter, randomized, parallel-group, double-blind, fixed dose, 6-week trial of the efficacy and safety of asenapine compared with placebo in participants with an acute exacerbation of schizophrenia.

A study to investigate the process by which ABT-126 is absorbed, distributed, metabolized and eliminated by the body of stable schizophrenic volunteers receiving treatment with an atypical antipsychotic.

These results suggest that the DA neuroprotection provided by DM in the inflammation-related neurodegenerative models is not mediated through the NMDA receptor.

Background: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a recent therapeutic which has demonstrated its efficacy in the treatment of auditory hallucinations in patients with schizophrenic disorders. Up to now, the target of stimulation has been over the left temporoparietal region (based on the international 10-20 EEG system) and rTMS has been delivered at low frequency (1 Hz). High frequency (20 Hz) might allow shortening the duration of treatment and so could be more convenient for the patient (2 days at high frequency instead of 15 days at low frequency). Besides high frequency, an accurate target taking into account the inter-subjects anatomical variability might increase the efficacy. Based on a great overlap of language and auditory hallucinations networks, the investigators hypothesized that targeting the stimulation on the highest cluster of activation induced by a language task could be an easier and relevant method to determine the target. The investigators suggest that the best area is located at the posterior part of the left superior temporal sulcus (STS). Indeed, this area is considered as an " epicenter " of language, i.e., involved both in understanding and production of language and in the auditory hallucination network. Therefore, the investigators conducted an open pilot study in order to test the interest of rTMS at high frequency (20 Hz) associated with anatomical and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuronavigation in 11 schizophrenic patients with hallucinations. The investigators showed a significant reduction of auditory hallucinations; Seven out of 11 patients (63.8%) were considered as responders at day 12 with a decrease of more than 30% of the score of Hoffman's scale (Auditory Hallucinations Rating Scale) ; 2 patients presented a drastic improvement with no hallucinations after 12 days of rTMS. The investigators also showed the target based on anatomical and functional MRI was located at the intersection of the left STS and the coronal slice across the vertical line of sylvius sulcus. The aim of this multicentric double-blind study (randomized and placebo sham) is to demonstrate the efficacy of rTMS at high frequency with neuronavigation in the treatment of auditory hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorders (DSMIV-R). Methods: 72 subjects will be included after written consent. After randomization, the subject will receive in a double blind either active treatment or placebo (sham coil) treatment. rTMS : 4 sessions of 13 minutes, with 2 sessions a day, at 20Hz frequency and at an intensity of 80% of rest motor threshold will be delivered. These parameters allow the investigators to be under the risk of epilepsia, the only one severe side effect. Another mild side effect is headache easily treated by antalgic drugs. The target will be established with anatomical MRI eventually associated with functional MRI before treatment. The efficacy of treatment will be evaluated over 4 weeks (D0, D1, D2, D7, D14, D21 and D30). The primary assessment is the percentage of patients who present a decrease of more than 30% of the frequency item of Auditory Hallucinations Rating Scale (AHRS) between D1 and D30 at 2 evaluations spaced of 1 week (Responder patients). The secondary assessments are : 1- Relative decrease of frequency item of AHRS between D1 and D14 ; 2- Evolution of total score of AHRS at D1, D2, D7, D14, D21 and D30 ; 3- Variation of scores of CGI, SUMD, IS, positive, negative, general and total PANSS scores between D0 and D14 and D30 ; 4- Scores at secondary side effects (adapted UKU) at D2 and D7; 5- Distances between the present target and the classical target based on 10-20 EEG system (T3P3) and/or the target established with functional MRI (cluster of activations induced by a listening comprehension task).

The GiSAS study is a multi-centre randomized clinical trial that will involve about 80 italian community psychiatric services in Italy and will recruit 800 patients affected by schizophrenia. In a sample of schizophrenic outpatients, it is hypothesized that there are significant differences in the overall tolerability and effectiveness of aripiprazole, olanzapine and haloperidol at 12 months. It is a pragmatic trial. Thus, participants are selected to represent a broad range of "real-world" patients, all treatment medications are non-blinded and after randomization, the assigned drugs will be prescribed according to usual care practice. The measure for effectiveness is retention of patients on the assigned treatment. The measure for tolerability is the onset of metabolic syndrome.

An inpatient/outpatient study to see if LY2140023 is better than placebo in acutely ill patients with schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of long acting injectable (LAI) risperidone and oral risperidone treatment on participants with schizophrenia (psychiatric disorder with symptoms of emotional instability, detachment from reality, often with delusions and hallucinations, and withdrawal into the self) or schizoaffective disorder (a mixed psychiatric disorder relating to a complex psychotic state that has features of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder such as bipolar disorder).