Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

Schizophrenia is a brain disease. The primary features of schizophrenia are characterized by Positive symptoms (symptoms that should not be there, inability to think clearly, to distinguish reality from fantasy i.e., hearing voices) and Negative symptoms (a reduction or absence of normal behaviors or emotions, i.e., unable to manage emotions, make decisions and relate to others). Other symptoms include reduced ability to recall and learn new information, difficulty with problem solving, or maintaining productive employment. The symptoms of schizophrenia may be due to an imbalance in chemicals in the brain, primarily dopamine and serotonin, which enables brain cells to communicate with each other. Asenapine is an investigational drug that may help to correct the imbalance in dopamine and serotonin. This is a 6 week study to test the efficacy and safety of asenapine and a comparator agent (olanzapine) in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. Patients that complete this trial will have the option of continuing in an additional one year extension trial.

Pregnenolone is a "neurosteroid" and possesses intrinsic behavioral and brain effects in animals, affecting the GABA(A) and other receptors. Pregnenolone is serves as the precursor for dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulfate ester (DHEAS). There is evidence of efficacy of DHEA augmentation in schizophrenia, we therefore sought to examine the efficacy of augmentation of antipsychotic treatment of schizophrenia patients with pregnenolone. It is hypothesized that the combined effect of antipsychotic agents and pregnenolone would be beneficial in the treatment of negative,depressive, and cognitive symptoms.

Clozapine is an antipsychotic. This open study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of long term treatment of clozapine in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia.

There is a high prevalence of smoking among people with schizophrenia, and there are few smoking treatment programs for these smokers. The aims of this study are to investigate the separate and combined effects of bupropion and a voucher incentive program on smoking in people with schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of different atypical antipsychotics on weight changes, energy homeostasis, metabolism, energy intake as well as activity. Patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders will be randomly assigned to be treated with ziprasidone or olanzapine for 24 weeks. Primary outcome parameter are the weight changes after 24 weeks.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a 6 weeks memantine add-on to risperidon treatment for the prevention of cognitive dysfunction and negative symptomatology in patients with acute schizophrenia. Psychopathological changes were assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) at baseline and after 2, 4, 6, 12, and 24 weeks. Cognitive function were measured at baseline and week 6, and 24 by the California Verbal Learning Test, Benton Learning Test, Digit Span Forward and Backward Test, Continuous Performance Test, Stroop Test, Trail-Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.

In the proposed study 450 veterans with a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia who had at least one psychiatric hospitalization for schizophrenia in the previous 2 years would be randomly assigned at 16 VA medical centers to long-acting injectable risperidone or doctor's choice of oral antipsychotic medication (i.e., excluding other long-acting injectable medications, but not specifying any particular oral agents or dosages). Recruitment would take 27 months to complete, and the study would continue for a third year to allow 9 months of follow-up for the last patient recruited. All patients would be treated from the time of entry up to the end of the three-year study period. Follow-up assessments would continue quarterly. Treatments would not be blinded since giving placebo injections to the comparison group would interfere with the goal of comparing the acceptability of two different methods of medication administration. However, end points will be blindly rated.

This study is to assess the safety and tolerability of a five-day titration schedule (using twice daily dosing for the first three days) to achieve the highest proposed dose of 40 mg daily. The study duration is two months.

This is a research study comparing the safety and efficacy of two active study medications

The purpose of this study is to show equal efficacy of both quetiapine and risperidone in subjects treated with study medication for up to 8 weeks.