Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

The lifetime of substance use disorders in schizophrenia is close to 50%. Substance abuse in schizophrenia is associated with negative consequences. Unfortunately, there no clear guidelines for the pharmacological treatment of this dual diagnosis population. Preliminary results suggest that second-generation antipsychotic drugs (mainly clozapine) may relieve drug cravings in schizophrenia. We performed a 12-week pilot study to evaluate the impact of quetiapine, a second-generation antipsychotic, on substance abuse parameters, psychiatric symptoms and side effects in patients schizophrenia and comorbid substance use disorders. Our expectation was a 20 % decrease in drug cravings from baseline to end-point.

This study will evaluate whether modafinil improves cognition in patients with schizophrenia and healthy volunteers. Modafinil is a drug that has been FDA approved for day-time sleepiness and allegedly increase the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the frontal cortex of the brain ...

The aim of the study was to compare the effectiveness of acute psychiatric day care to conventional inpatient care within a cross-national multi-site randomised controlled trial.

This project evaluates the implementation and effectiveness of a care model to improve treatment for schizophrenia within the context of diverse VA practices and priorities. The project provides information to VA clinicians and managers about Veterans with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who are overweight and/or who would like to return to competitive work. The project facilitates reorganization of care practices in order to get veterans needed and desired services around wellness and work. The project creates a platform that other clinical and research interventions can build upon to improve care, and is designed to inform a national strategy for implementing evidence-based care in schizophrenia.

The goal of this pilot study is to learn about how well older people with serious mental illness (including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression) follow prescribed medication regimens, and to evaluate a manualized intervention designed to enhance medication management skills and adherence, the Using Medications Effectively program. The following four hypotheses will be tested: Medication adherence will be associated with several variables including insight, memory, medication management skill, knowledge about medications, attitudes about medications. People who receive the program will have better medication adherence compared to those who do not receive the program as measured by pill counts. People who receive the program will develop better medication management skills compared to those who do not receive the program.

Individuals with schizophrenia are three times as likely to smoke cigarettes as individuals without schizophrenia. While a great deal of research has been focused on smoking cessation programs for healthy individuals, little attention has been directed towards developing an effective smoking cessation treatment for schizophrenics. This project will evaluate the effects of 0, 21 and 42 mg transdermal nicotine on smoking, urge to smoke, and nicotine withdrawal symptoms after 5 hrs abstinence in smokers with schizophrenia and heavy-smoking non-psychiatric control smokers.

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of quetiapine (Seroquel) in reducing substance use in persons diagnosed with schizophrenia. The primary hypothesis is that quetiapine treatment will be associated with a decrease in substance use.

Although currently marketed antipsychotic drugs are useful in the treatment of schizophrenia, efficacy and safety profiles need to be improved. Forty to eighty percent of patients either fail to respond or only partially respond to conventional antipsychotic agents. Secondary symptoms may be unimproved even in patients who respond to treatment. A variety of adverse events occur in patients receiving currently available agents. The severity of these events contributes to the poor compliance that is observed in this patient population. Olanzapine is a novel antipsychotic agent with a reduced incidence of extrapyramidal symptoms. Other side effects are minimal.

Schizophrenia causes hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking, resulting in decreased functioning and lifelong therapy.Delusion believability is the degree of belief in the truth of one's subjective experiences as representations of reality. It was unpleasant, typically accompanied by a suspicious, strange tension. Delusional belief is seen as a means of resolving tension and conflict in cognition and experience. Previous studies have shown that cognitive defusion strategies help people become more aware of their surroundings, accept their thoughts and feelings, and become more psychologically adjustable. defusion is crucial in reducing medication-resistant psychotic symptoms such delusions in schizophrenia patients. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of cognitive defusion techniques on psychological flexibility, mindful awareness, cognitive fusion, and believability of delusions among clients with schizophrenia. Research Hypothesizes Clients who participated in cognitive defusion techniques had more psychological flexibility and mindful awareness than the control group. Clients who participated in cognitive defusion techniques had less cognitive fusion and delusional believability than the control group.

Moral cognition is an important and multidimensional, but often overlooked, determinant of violence. Very few interventions have systematically examined the role of moral reasoning, anger management and problem-solving together in violence. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to comprehensively evaluate the sustained effects of an integrated Moral Reasoning Development Intervention (MRDI) on management of repetitive violence in schizophrenia. This study placed special emphasis on essential components related to moral reasoning and violence in patients with schizophrenia. Evaluations including measures of violence, moral reasoning, ethical valuation and judgement, decision-making, conflict management style, and personality traits, were performed at baseline, end of intervention, and 1-month follow-up after intervention. MRDI was superior to treatment-as-usual in improving moral reasoning and related variables and violence outcomes. In comparison with the treatment-as-usual group, patients in the MRDI group showed improved levels of moral reasoning whereas decreased levels of violent behaviors. The MRDI participants also experienced significantly greater improvements or changes in their ethical valuation and judgement, decision-making style and preferences, and conflict management style. Our findings provide important implications for risk assessment and violence management and prevention.