Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

This study will be a randomized controlled trial that investigates the effectiveness of digital picture frames (DPF) installed in inpatient rooms on long stay inpatient wards servicing schizophrenia clients at CAMH. The effects on client experience will consider the domains of self-concept, interactions with healthcare staff, perception of space, and implications for the recovery process. The comparison of inpatient client experience with DPFs versus a control group (Treatment as Usual - TAU), offers the opportunity to examine the effectiveness of this type of environmental adaptation. This trial builds upon earlier work that demonstrated the feasibility of DPFs in this context.

Severe mental illness is accompanied by cognitive fluctuations that can alter decision-making skills and lead to coerced care. Taking into account, on the one hand, the health, social and economic impact of forced hospitalization, on the other hand the importance of self-determination, the reinforcement of the power to act in the evolution of these disorders, new strategies to better reflect the views of people have been developed. Among these, the drafting of Advanced Directives in Psychiatric (ADP), allows people with mental disorders to write while their decision-making skills are restored care instructions in case of decompensation. It is a tool of "advanced therapeutic education" and early prevention of relapses. It is hypothesized that the implementation of drafting accompanied by advance directives to people with severe psychiatric disorders decreases in the short term the number of forced hospitalization care pathway of these people, compared to the subjects having not benefited from this device. This research will take the form of a randomized controlled trial on 3 sites. The "quantitative" evaluation component of results and processes will be completed with a qualitative anthropological and socio-political evaluation component documenting the trajectories of individuals and the implementation of the program, as well as a "participatory research" component aimed at a dialogue between users, researchers and professionals. The patient who is a beneficiary of the "Advanced Directives in Psychiatric" program will be encouraged to complete the " Advanced Directives in Psychiatric" document and will receive support in drafting them. The non-beneficiary patient of the program will follow up with his psychiatrist unchanged. The experimental design of the quantitative component is based on an experimental, randomized, prospective, controlled, parallel study, comparing two groups of subjects with severe psychiatric disorders. This research will assess the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of the " Advanced Directives in Psychiatric" program compared to conventional psychiatric care alone. Ultimately, the objective of describing the effects of the program on health organizations and on the representations and practices of professionals, caregivers and users is at the service of a better understanding of the conditions of possibility of the generalization of this experimentation.

The purpose of this study is to examine changes in serum butyrate levels with the prebiotic: Prebiotin (12g/day), an oligofructose-enriched inulin (OEI); the effect of OEI on the composition of the gastrointestinal microbiota in people with schizophrenia; and the relationship of the composition of the gut microbiota to various clinical, cognitive, and neuroimaging variables.

Survey experiment to estimate drivers of mental illness stigma

This protocol describes an attempt to capture the development phase of a mobile support for individuals with schizophrenia. The intent is to describe and account for a rigorous development process that will result in the creation of a beta version that would be tested in a randomized trial for effectiveness - to be addressed in a subsequent protocol

This proposal will examine measures of neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to alter its function or structure in response to changes in the environment or novel experiences) in Veterans with schizophrenia or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Both conditions are associated with impaired cognition (for example, attention, memory, learning), which is in turn associated with poor community functioning and integration. However, the two disorders differ in their origins: schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder appearing usually in late adolescence while TBI is an acquired disorder as the result of an injury to the head. Understanding of the root causes of complex cognitive impairments associated with these disorders remains limited. Neuroplasticity is a fundamental brain process that underlies cognitive functioning and may give insight into the causes of cognitive dysfunction in TBI and schizophrenia. Neuroplasticity will be measured using electroencephalography (EEG) by placing small electrodes on the scalp that record the brain's electrical activity. Participants will listen to simple auditory tones and view simple visual patterns while their EEG is recorded. Additionally, participants will have measures of cognition and clinical interviews for diagnosis of a disorder as well as any current levels of symptoms.

The goal of this study is to use transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate the impact of modulating cerebellar activity on time perception, executive function, and mood and psychotic symptoms in psychosis patients (i.e., schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder with psychotic features). The investigators hypothesize that abnormally reduced activity in the cerebellum contributes to the abnormalities in patients, that cerebellum-mediated disruptions in time perception may partially underlie executive dysfunction and symptoms, and that cerebellar stimulation will normalize disease-relevant outcome measures.

Given the superior effects of CT augmented tDCS in healthy subjects, the aim of the current study was to examine whether the effect of CT on cognition can be enhanced with concurrent anodal tDCS in schizophrenia patients. A double-blinded randomised controlled trial design was utilised and cognitive performances were examined at baseline (T0), immediately after the intervention (T1) and one month post-intervention (T2). It was hypothesized that concurrent CT with tDCS would result in greater and more sustainable cognitive improvement than CT alone because of increased susceptibility to neuroplasticity changes of the underlying activated network (Bikson et al., 2013; Orlov, O'Daly, et al., 2017). The effects of concurrent CT with tDCS were also assessed using blinded assessments of psychotic, negative symptoms, affective symptoms, psychosocial functioning, subjective quality of life (QOL) and tolerability in the two groups.

Medication adherence is a challenge in all of medicine and is associated with multiple negative outcomes. Strategies to better measure and enhance adherence to medication are urgent and necessary to minimize unwanted health outcomes, hospitalizations, poorer quality of life and excessive costs for individuals, insurers and caregivers. Recently, behavioral economics-based approaches have emerged as a promising tool to address this unmet need, but its effectiveness in oral antipsychotic treatment remains to be assessed. For this project, investigators will use an app that offers financial incentives to increase compliance for patients with chronic diseases. Investigators intend to enroll 25 patients in a pilot project to assess feasibility of offering financial incentives to improve medication adherence in severe mental illness.

Acute and sub-chronic administration of olanzapine has shown a favourable effect on the sleep disturbances in previously medicated schizophrenia patients with predominantly negative symptoms. The present study will be carried out to clarify the effect of olanzapine on polysomnographic profiles of schizophrenia patients in an acute phase of illness after controlling for the drug effects.