Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) will be exposed to active and sham repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in separate sessions. SSD-related biomarkers will be assessed before and after the rTMS administration.

Cognitive deficits (CD) are considered one of the essential characteristics in psychotic disorders and occur throughout the course of the disease, being a key characteristic in the evolution of the disease and in the functionality and prognosis of patients. Intervening in the early stages of the disease and specifically in adolescence, a period of high brain plasticity can reduce disabilities in adulthood associated with early-onset psychosis. The objective of this study is to assess the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation therapy in adolescents with a first psychotic episode, comparing two groups of these patients: a first group (CCRT) will carry out 40 sessions of a computerized cognitive remediation therapy with the usual treatment too, and a second group will perform only the usual treatment (TAU). The main hypothesis is that the CCRT group will present a significant improvement in verbal memory, visual attention, executive function, and social cognition and will present better global functioning compared to the TAU group.

Serious mental illnesses require years of monitoring and adjustments in treatment. Stress, substance abuse or reduced medication adherence cause rapid worsening of symptoms, with consequences that include job loss, homelessness, suicide, incarceration, and hospitalization. Treatment visits can be infrequent. Illness exacerbations usually occur with no clinician awareness, leaving little opportunity to make treatment adjustments. Tools are needed that quickly detect illness worsening. At least two thirds of Veterans with serious mental illness use a smart phone. These phones generate data that characterize sociability, activity and sleep. Changes in these are warning signs for relapse. Members of this project developed an app that monitors and transmits these mobile data. This project studies passive mobile sensing that allows Veterans to self-track their activities, sociability and sleep; and studies whether this can be used to track symptoms. The project intends to produce a mobile platform that monitors the clinical status of patients, identifies risk for relapse, and allows early intervention.

The term sexual (SD) dysfunction covers conditions that prevent people from having a satisfactory sex life. SD is a frequent and sometimes debilitating complication of mental illness and a known adverse reaction to psycho-pharmacological treatment. SD is also associated with diabetes, a common somatic comorbidity in psychiatric patients. SD is associated with both reduced quality-of-life and reduced treatment adherence, yet SD is far too rarely addressed between the patient and the healthcare professional in clinical consultations. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether targeted education of patients with schizophrenia and diabetes/prediabetes and/or their healthcare professionals in causes and management of SD: Increases the number of systematic examinations of sexual side effects, Causes changes in the psycho-pharmacological treatment, and Reduces the severity or perception of sexual side effects. The study is a multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) with four arms, in which the educational intervention is provided to patients, healthcare professionals, or both groups. The effect of the educational intervention is compared to a non-educated control group. The study is expected to include 192 patients recruited from 16 assertive community treatment centers evenly distributed in four Danish regions. The study is part of an interdisciplinary project named SECRET. The educational intervention was developed in an ethnographic pre-study incorporating stakeholder engagement. Parallel to the present RCT, an ethnographic field study will be carried out to broaden the perspective on the effects of the intervention.

Schizophrenia affects a significant proportion of the population and current levels of understanding of the illness is inadequate to treat it effectively. Converging lines of evidence suggest that neuroinflammation occurs in schizophrenia, and specifically over-activity of brain-resident immune cells called microglia. It is however unclear whether activated microglia play a primary role in schizophrenia, or whether this is a secondary phenomenon of no pathophysiological significance. The investigators therefore plan to test the effect of a monoclonal antibody (natalizumab) on psychotic symptoms in a cohort of first episode psychosis patients.

Higher rates and severity of tobacco dependence in people with schizophrenia, as compared with the general population, contribute to the lower life expectancy seen in this population. Dependent tobacco smoking is controlled by how different aspects of cigarette smoking are perceived. There is evidence suggesting that people with schizophrenia differ in how they perceive cigarette smoking, which, if confirmed, would have implications for tailoring treatment interventions for smoking cessation in schizophrenia.

This clinical trial is a single center, single dose study of the acute effects of intranasal insulin on energy metabolism and cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective and bipolar disorders, compared and healthy controls.

Disorders of social cognition, and empathy more specifically, are at the heart of schizophrenic pathology in that they are strongly linked to the social handicap of patients. It is therefore necessary to refine our knowledge of the cognitive and affective processes behind this empathic disorder and to identify objective and easily measurable markers (related to brain functioning collected by electroencephalography) of these processes with the subsequent aim of improving their management. It is also relevant to question the trait/status nature of these empathic disorders by studying these markers in individuals presenting more or less marked schizotypic traits and therefore more or less at risk of developing schizophrenia. Studying the possibility that empathy disorders may be part of the factors of developmental vulnerability for schizophrenia and identifying objective markers of this vulnerability could allow, in case of development of the pathology, a more rapid diagnosis and a more effective management.

The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between psychotic symptoms and social functioning in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Our goal is to determine whether stimulating the brain using transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) can improve symptoms and daily functioning.

The goal of this re-measured quasi-experimental study is to evaluate the effect of Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT-G) intervention given to caregiver family members of people with schizophrenia on caregiver burden, perception of social support and stigma, adherence to treatment in people with schizophrenia they care for, and emotional expression in both caregivers and people with schizophrenia they care for. The main hypotheses it aims to test are: IPT-G intervention will reduce the caregiver burden of caregivers of individuals with schizophrenia. IPT-G intervention will increase the perceived social support levels of caregivers of individuals with schizophrenia. IPT-G intervention will reduce the level of stigma of caregivers of individuals with schizophrenia. IPT-G intervention will reduce the level of emotional expression of caregivers of individuals with schizophrenia. IPT-G intervention applied to caregivers will increase the level of adherence to treatment of individuals with schizophrenia they care for. IPT-G intervention applied to caregivers will reduce the emotional expression levels of individuals with schizophrenia they care for.