Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

To evaluate the QOL (subjective effectiveness) in patients with schizophrenia, treated with atypical antipsychotics.

The purpose of this study is to learn more about the relationship between serious mental illness and the detection and management of diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions. Patients who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia are at an increased risk for developing diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions such as impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose. In addition, novel antipsychotics have also been linked to impaired glucose metabolism and increased incidence of diabetes. The medical management of these patients may be difficult ot achieve through standard family practice. The objectives of this project are to: screen a sample of this high-risk population using an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT), and to provide multidisciplinary team support to those identified as having diabetes or a pre-diabetic condition.

Medications like olanzapine have been associated with the development of weight gain and diabetes in some patients. It is not known if the increased risk of developing diabetes is a direct effect on insulin or simply related to weight gain. We hope to learn in this study whether or not olanzapine directly slows down insulin secretion from the pancreas, thereby increasing the risk of developing diabetes.

The purpose of this study is to assess treatment and outcomes data in patients receiving treatment with long-acting injectable risperidone.

This proposal responds to Request for Applications RFA ( Rapid Founding Award)-MH ( Mental Health)-08-131, which seeks applications that propose to enrich pre-existing resources for schizophrenia in the NIMH ( National Institute of Mental Health) Human Genetics Initiative and to apply genomic methods to further our understanding of the molecular etiology of the disorder. The overarching aims of this proposal are to quickly and cost-effectively ascertain a large sample of trio families affected by schizophrenia, and to discover causal variants for the disorder in the first family-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) of the disorder. In Taiwan, there is no such kind of policy to support this kind of GWAS study as it is a very expensive study, including collecting large family samples and genome-wide SNP scanning. We, thus, collaborate with Professor Ming T, Tsuang and his extended subcontracted researchers to apply for this project. We, the research team in Taiwan, will collect 3800 trio families (11400 subjects) of schizophrenia. In our recently completed NIMH-funded Genetic Linkage Study of Schizophrenia (R01MH059624; USA PI: Ming T. Tsuang; Taiwan PI: Hai-Gwo Hwu), the investigators established a large and efficient ascertainment network and infrastructure in Taiwan, which will again be utilized and expanded in the proposed study. Through additional ascertainment within this framework, the investigators will collect an aggregate sample with adequate power for detecting in a GWAS those variants that make even small contributions to the risk for the disorder. The investigators will meet the overarching goals of this project by accomplishing several Specific Aims, as follows: Rapidly ascertain schizophrenia trio families from ten Taiwanese clinical ascertainment sites; Supplement NIMH Genetics Initiative collections by sending all clinical data and biomaterials to the appropriate repositories; Assess the association of schizophrenia with a genome-wide panel of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and their constituent haplotypes; Analyze quantitative schizophrenia phenotypes such as age at onset ; Perform a genome-wide survey for copy-number variations related to schizophrenia; Test for gene-gene interactions (epistasis); and Test for gene-environment interactions, such as the well-established effect of season of birth.

The purpose of this study is to find out how well new treatment plans are followed by outpatients with major mental illnesses (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, personality disorder) and to determine the relationship between a diagnosis of schizophrenia and compliance with a treatment plan.

In this study we, the investigators at UMC Utrecht, intend to investigate changes in brain activation patterns using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in patients suffering from schizophrenia who are medication naive or off medication, before using medication and after 8 weeks of medication. Patients will perform a working memory task, a language task and a motor task while lying in the scanner. We hypothesize that the efficiency of the working memory system is reduced and that the lateralization of language is diminished in these patients, and that these functions will normalize after treatment.

This Group of Genomic Research in Psychiatric Disorders (GENOP) located at the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) had completed a serial psychopathological study of schizophrenia (SCH) defined by DSM-IV criteria. The results of this GENOP included: (1) delineating 2 to 3 subtypes of schizophrenia with prospective follow-up validity; (2) finding a trait marker of impaired attention measured by continuous performance test (CPT); (3) impaired executive function assess by Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and impaired inhibition of P50 evoked potential; (4) five dinucleotide repeat polymorphism (DRP) markers in 5 different chromosomes with significant linkage scores, including D1S251 at 1q42.1, D6S296 at 6p22 , D8S1222 at 8p14, and D15S976 at 15q14, and D22S278 at 22q12; (5) finding a significant linkage of polymorphism marker located in a neurodevelopmental gene NOTCH4 ( 6p22); and neurophysiological function related gene CHNRA7 (15q14); (6) successfully collected 700 multiplex families, collected by the collaboration between of NTUH, Taiwan - NIMH, USA in the Taiwan Schizophrenia Genetic Linkage Study (TSLS) project, with at least two siblings affected with schizophrenia in Taiwan. A genome-wide scan on this big sample will be completed recently in the laboratory of NIMH, U.S.A.. Around 300 families had also CPT data in the whole family. This is probably the biggest number of multiplex families of a single ethnicity all over the world; (7) successfully setting up DNA and cell banks as well as clinical data bank. This substantial long track of this GENOP provided convincing background for this Positional Cloning Study on Schizophrenia (POCOS). Understanding the controversial results of current linkage study on SCH world-wide, this POCOS was designed to make a break through design in the study for locating and identifying the vulnerability genes of SCH by using (1) phenomenological subtypes; (2) endophenotype defined by impaired attention (CPT) and/or impaired executive function (WCST); (3) using large enough size of samples of a single ethnicity of Taiwanese family pedigrees. Major research tasks include (1) Linkage analysis and quantitative trait loci analysis, in collaboration with the team of Harvard Medical School, on the endophenotype defined by impaired attention and impaired executive function in 300 families with at least two siblings affected with SCH; (2) Two stages of genotyping, using High Throughput technology, of dense SNP markers, around DRP markers with significant linkage scores in the NTUH and TSLS studies, with average marker interval of 30kb in 3000 subjects of 700 multiplex families (a total of 300 markers) for linkage and quantitative trait loci analysis; (3) Two stages of study on the polymorphisms and/or mutations of candidate genes using association study and TDT test. Each stage with 10 Candidate Genes in the NTUH and TSLS project, respectively. In the first stage, these are: (a) Neurodevelopmental related genes: DISC1, TRAX (1q42.1), NOTCH4 and TNF(6p21.3) and NT-3; (b) Neurotransmitter receptor genes of CHNRA7 (15q14) and NMDA related to attention impairment; (c) Neurotransmitter metabolizing enzyme gene COMT (22q11.2) related to impaired frontal lobe function; and (d) Pharmacology related genes of DRD3 and 5HTA2.

Abnormalities in the re-uptake of dopamine and serotonin have been described in various neuropsychiatric disorders and substance abuse. [I-123] Beta-CIT is a recently developed radioligand for SPECT imaging of dopamine and serotonin transporters. [I-123]Beta-CIT SPECT has been used at the SPECT-lab of the Clinical Brain Disorders Branch in over fifty subjects without adverse events. Due to the trace concentrations used, a pharmacological effect of Beta-CIT is unlikely and has not been observed. The purpose of this study is to use Beta-CIT and SPECT to study the expression of dopamine and serotonin transporters in vivo in normal controls and various patient populations to address hypothesized abnormalities of the transporters in different disorders and to understand the effects of genetic variations in the genes of these transporters on their in vivo expression.

The purpose of this research study is to measure current flow inside the head using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The data from this study will be used to map the current flow caused from the electrical stimulation inside the head. The methods develop will be used to map and better control delivery of the current for electrical stimulation to modify a psychiatric condition such as depression; or other conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease or autism.