Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of paliperidone palmitate over a 9-week period for participants with schizophrenia in Korea.

The primary objective of this Non- Interventional Study (NIS) is to describe the use of atypical antipsychotics in subjects with Schizophrenia during the hospitalisation due to acute psychotic episode by evaluation of drug, dose and mode of administration of the medication.

Spatial working memory (ability to remember where objects are in space) is impaired in patients with schizophrenia. It is thought that this impairment occurs due to problems with the chemical messenger (neurotransmitter), glutamate, and the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor, particularly in the hippocampal brain region. NMDA receptor activation leads to increases in the release of the second messenger Nitric Oxide. Impaired NMDA receptor function would therefore be predicted to lead to reductions in Nitric Oxide production. Recent work suggests that a drug, sodium nitroprusside, which releases nitric oxide, enhances some aspects of cognition in schizophrenia (specifically related to negative symptoms). In this study, the investigators will test the hypothesis that sodium nitroprusside improves spatial working memory in patients with schizophrenia. 15 patients will receive sodium nitroprusside, and 15 will receive a nonactive compound (placebo). Their performance on a spatial working memory task will be tested before and after administration of sodium nitroprusside or placebo.

The purpose of this study is to examine a novel technique for improving the informed consent process for participation in research by the older psychiatric population.

The primary purpose of this investigation is to determine the predictive value of task persistence as measured by a mirror tracing task. A secondary purpose is to evaluate differences in task persistence in smokers with or without schizophrenia. It is hypothesized that task persistence in smokers in both diagnostic categories (schizophrenia and no schizophrenia) will predict tobacco dependence treatment outcome at one and six months. It is also hypothesized that smokers with schizophrenia will show lower levels of task persistence after controlling for other motor skills than smokers without schizophrenia.

The project is a double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled clinical trial comparing 3 groups of schizophrenic subjects, who have no less than moderate degree of negative symptoms and carry the homozygous risk genotype (TT) of NRG1-P3, each group having 30 individuals, treated by add-on with escitalopram 10-20 mg/day, duloxetine 30-60 mg/day, and placebo. The treatment duration is 8 week. The investigators will evaluate the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) at baseline, Day 14, Day 28, Day 42, and Day 56. The primary outcome of interest will be the differences of averaged reduction of negative symptom scores among 3 groups and an average decrease of 2 or more in the negative symptoms will be indicated as improvement.

Background: Individuals who have schizophrenia are significantly more likely to smoke than the general population, which leads to increased smoking-related illnesses and high rates of nicotine dependence. Research suggests that high rates of smoking and nicotine addiction in people with schizophrenia are related to the fact that nicotine temporally improves performance in several cognitive tasks, including sensory gating, long-term memory, and visual tracking-all of which are affected by schizophrenia. Smoking among schizophrenia patients may be a form of self-medication, since nicotine may temporarily treat and improve cognitive deficits caused by schizophrenia. Researchers are interested in studying the effects of nicotine on the brain activity of individuals with schizophrenia to better understand how nicotine affects the brain regions connected to memory, visual tracking, and attention. Objectives: To identify specific brain regions involved in the anticipatory learning deficits found in schizophrenia patients who smoke. To determine whether and how nicotine enhances performance in these regions. Eligibility: - Smokers (at least 10 cigarettes per day) between 18 and 50 years of age who either are healthy volunteers or have been diagnosed with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder. Design: Participants will be asked to avoid consuming alcohol and restrict consuming caffeinated beverages for 24 hours before the study days. Participants will provide urine and breath samples at the start of the study to be tested for chemicals that may interfere with the study. The study will require two to four visits, with two fMRI sessions and other visits for a clinical interview or training. Participants will have a training session with a possible mock MRI scan to learn how to do tasks that track eye movement and measure ability to pay attention. During the fMRI scanning sessions, participants will receive either a nicotine patch or a placebo patch without nicotine. After the patch is in place, participants will perform tasks while receiving MRI scans. The scans will take up to 2 hours. Participants will provide blood samples after finishing the MRI sessions.

This is a regulatory-required non-interventional pharmacovigilance study exploring the safety profile of ziprasidone HCL monohydrate 20mg, 40mg, 60mg, 80mg in the real world patient population, thus, safety (and/or efficacy) signals will be checked at every visit during the contracted study period until the maximum study end date, per the protocol, of April 2010.

The objective of this study is to evaluate under routine clinical setting the efficacy and remission status from treatment of 2nd-generation antipsychotic in patients who is upon acute episode or not achieving remission under regular treatment from schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder. This study will collect in real-life practice the severity of schizophrenia by Clinical Global Impression (CGI), also evaluate the criteria of schizophrenia remission applying 8 items of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) from Andresen working group, the Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF). Side effect of movement disorder will be evaluated by Drug Induced Extrapyramidal Symptoms Scale (DIEPSS). Tolerability for treatment will be monitored by documenting spontaneous reports on adverse events as well as change in body weight.

Over the last decade, second generation antipsychotics have been increasingly utilized. Since their introduction, however, atypical antipsychotics have been increasingly associated with significant metabolic complications including hyperlipidemia, insulin resistance/diabetes mellitus, and obesity. These metabolic complications increase the risk for cardiovascular disease in populations with an already elevated risk. The initial goal of the proposed study is to identify early signs of endothelial dysfunction and vascular disease in those treated with atypical antipsychotics. The identification of early signs of vascular disease may further link metabolic complications with any cardiovascular risk. Demonstration of changes in vascular function associated with atypical antipsychotics represents an important identifiable intermediate of more long-term cardiovascular risk. The second goal of the proposed study is to identify genetic factors that may be associated with the development of cardiovascular disease, which can later serve as a guide to predict risk. Accurate prediction of risk may facilitate the future development of an empirical, risk-based, individualized selection process for antipsychotic medications. Aim 1: To quantify the role of antipsychotic-induced metabolic complications on the development of vascular disease using measures of endothelial function. Hypothesis 1: Atypical antipsychotics will lead to greater impairments in endothelial function, evidenced by decreased flow-mediated dilation from baseline measures and compared with changes over time in controls. Medication-induced metabolic complications will be temporally associated with these impairments in endothelial function. Aim 2: To investigate the role of candidate pharmacogenetic polymorphisms with cardiovascular and metabolic complications of atypical antipsychotics. Hypothesis 2: Profiles of polymorphisms at receptors targeted by atypical antipsychotics will be associated with impaired cardiovascular function and metabolic complications.