Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

The principal objective of this pilot trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of a psychosocial intervention to reduce self-stigma and improve treatment adherence and quality of life among people with a severe mental illness who attend to Community Mental Health Centers in Chile. The intervention is based on recovery and narrative therapy and considers 10 group sessions, mainly with patients, but also integrating relatives and professionals in some of the activities.

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a highly debilitating neuropsychiatric disorder of young adulthood onset and a leading cause of disability worldwide. While treatments delivered at early stages of the disorder may be effective at reducing psychosis or altering the course of the disease, there are currently no biomarkers capable of identifying subjects in early stages of SZ who are likely to respond to treatment and would be good candidates for available proactive, symptomatic or future disease-modifying treatments; or those who would not respond and can be spared unnecessary medication exposure. The lack of these vitally important biomarkers provides a compelling rationale for the present multidisciplinary research project, which aims to develop and validate highly promising noninvasive and objective proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS)-based biomarkers for monitoring treatment response in early stages of SZ. In support of the viability of this overall objective is a large body of data, reported by the applicants and others, that show (a) that levels of glutamate (Glu) and - aminobutyric acid (GABA) - respectively, the major excitatory and inhibitory amino acid neurotransmitter systems - are abnormally elevated in medication-naïve and unmedicated first episode and chronic SZ patients; (b) that the effect of treatment with antipsychotic medications in these populations may be to lower or normalize brain levels of both Glu and GABA. To investigate the potential of these in vivo brain Glu and GABA abnormalities to serve as biomarkers of treatment response in early-stage SZ, the applicants propose to use 1H MRS to measure Glu and GABA levels in the largest cohort of medication-free SZ subjects to date, at baseline and following 4 weeks of antipsychotic treatment.

This is a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the community-based effectiveness of virtual reality job interview training (VR-JIT). Northwestern University is partnering with Thresholds Inc. to evaluate the effectiveness of VR-JIT at improving interviewing skills and access to employment. In addition, we will evaluate the cost effectiveness of VR-JIT and the process for implementing VR-JIT at Thresholds.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is effective in remediating cognitive deficits while also improving functionality in Veterans with schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (PK) of TAK-041: Following oral single and multiple doses in healthy participants. As add-on therapy to antipsychotics in stable schizophrenia participants. To determine the oral bioavailability of the TAK-041 tablet formulation compared to the oral suspension formulation in the fasted state. To assess the effect of food on the PK of TAK-041 in healthy participants.

Schizophrenia is one of the most frequent psychiatric disorders with a prevalence of 0.5-1.0 % all over the world. It remains one of the major reasons for disability although medical and psychosocial interventions. People suffering from schizophrenia may also have many complex health troubles such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, diabetes mellitus, and pulmonary problems. Researchers have been debating the utility of exercise over depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms last decades. Studies indicate that physical activity improves mood, self-esteem, energy, motivation, concentration, cognitive skills, quality of life, and social interactions. Particularly in the last decade studies have been carried out showing that various exercise approaches and physical activities contribute positively to the physical and mental health of schizophrenic patients. Clinic impacts of these interventions, dominantly including aerobic exercise, strengthening and fitness training, also varied according to the type, duration and intensity of the method used. The knowledge obtained about schizophrenia patients point out that physically and mentally holistic approaches should be required to this complicated disease. Previous trials demonstrated that various physical activity or exercise methods have positive effects in patients with schizophrenia. However, to the best of the our knowledge, literature lacks investigation about benefits of Pilates on several domains, in particular about the potential changes on physical and mental health in patients with schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Pilates-based exercise training on the physical and mental health of schizophrenia patients.

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.

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.

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.

Persons with serious mental illness (SMI) are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The goals of this study are to test a treatment, Life Goals Collaborative Care to help promote health behavior change and improve mental health and physical health-related quality of life, as well as to get feedback from patients and providers on what is needed to help better coordinate the physical and mental health care of these patients.