Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

Clozapine has consistently shown to be a superior drug for psychosis in patients who do not respond to other treatments, but its mechanism of action remains unknown. The overall goal of this study is to examine the functional neural circuitry that underlies successful treatment with clozapine, which may lead to the identification of biomarkers that will allow for more efficient use of clozapine, as well as additional treatment targets for patients with refractory illness.

This study evaluates the role of the Nitric Oxide system in cognition in patients with schizophrenia. Participants will be randomised to 2 equal groups and receive either the Nitric Oxide donor molecule glyceryl trinitrate, or a placebo. Performance on several cognitive tasks will be assessed.

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder that affects approximately 1% of the population worldwide. Although pathophysiology of this disease remains unclear, a growing interest is emerging for low-level sensory function, acknowledging that deficits in early stages of sensory processing are related to higher-order cognitive disturbances in schizophrenia. In the field of auditory processing, symptoms as auditory-hallucinations were found correlated with disabilities to discriminate psychoacoustic parameters of sounds.

In a sample of 20 inpatients with a DSM-IV-TR/DSM 5 diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, investigators propose to conduct a prospective, 2 week observational trial to collect gastrointestinal stool samples in order to characterize the microbiota in people with schizophrenia and examine its variability over time. Participants may elect to participate for an additional two weeks, during which they will receive the prebiotic, oligofructose-enriched inulin (FOS), in order to examine its effects on the relative preponderance of butyrate-producing bacteria in the gut microbiome. Investigators will use an inpatient sample in order to standardize meals, exercise and environmental mediators. This is considered a feasibility, pilot study in order to apply for future grant funding. Investigators will recruit patients from the Treatment Research Program inpatient unit, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorders are major public health problems. The second generation anti-psychotic drugs have efficacy for both positive and negative symptoms and a favorable risk profile as far as movement disorders. However, these drugs are associated with clinically significant weight gain and metabolic effects. The underlying mechanisms of these side effects are unclear, however in our preliminary studies with schizophrenic patients on atypical anti-psychotic drugs, we found that weight gain and vitamin D deficiency was present in about 50% of this population. Given the considerable heterogeneity among the patients on atypical anti-psychotics and potential for weight gain in vitamin D-deficient states, we propose that patients with schizophrenia who gain weight on atypical antipsychotic medications are vitamin D-deficient. This hypothesis will be tested in patients with schizophrenia receiving second-generation anti-psychotic drugs for a minimum duration of 4 months. Specific Aim: We predict that the patients with schizophrenia, who gain weight with antipsychotic treatment, are vitamin D-deficient compared to the patients who do not gain weight. We will examine circulating levels of serum 25(OH)D, mRNA transcripts and protein expression of vitamin D receptor (VDR) and the enzymes, CYP24A and CYP27B, in the white blood cells of the subjects and correlate with BMI and the blood levels of leptin and adiponectin.

The elderly demographic is on the rise - and this includes elderly living with schizophrenia. Yet very little is known about their lives, how they cope with their condition and how it develops over time. Research in this patient-group is sparse; overall there seem to be a tendency for elderly patients to manifest fewer psychotic symptoms and experiencing an increase in the psychological quality of life with older age. Opinions are divided on the degree and extent to which this tendency reflects remission and/or recovery in older patients. In order to identify factors associated with a positive outcome we: Investigate the course and the outcomes of the illness over the lifespan, as well as the life course and outcomes. Investigate the current status of mental and physical health, quality of life as well as functional competence of elderly (55+ yr) with schizophrenia. Also the investigators - Compare the trajectory and prognosis of schizophrenia (a chronic mental illness) with type 1 diabetes (a chronic somatic illness). This study will yield vital insights into how schizophrenia develops over time, isolating factors that determine how well patients fare. The perspective is to advance knowledge of elderly with schizophrenia with a view to optimizing and increasing the effectiveness of the interventions offered to this group.

Multi-site Communication Deficits Underlying Cognitive Dysfunction in the Prodromal Phase and First Episode of Schizophrenia

The purpose of this study is to get a better understanding of the side effect burden and identify predictors of psychotic, mood and aggressive disorders in children and adolescents. The study's primary aim is to identify genetic risk factors for weight gain and metabolic abnormalities.

Therapeutic alliance, and drug observance are major difficulties in the care of persons presenting schizophrenic symptomatology. They appear to be linked to insight, the consciousness that one has of his troubles. Nurse care in psychiatry aims at improving it, but usually without using specific evaluation tool. Insight is usually not evaluated during care, and its evolution is also not known, although it is highly probable that a positive evolution of insight for a person in hospital correlated to an adapted and optimal care by the medical and nursing teams. The investigators do not know examples of insight evaluation during a sequence of hospital care, or any evidence of insight variation in relation to evolution abilities of some schizophrenic patients cared in hospital. The investigators propose here to evaluate insight in people presenting schizophrenia or related troubles, at the beginning of hospitalization (I1) and 1 month later (I2), to better characterize insight variations, and identify the sociodemographic, clinical and therapeutic variables linked to it.

There is accumulating experimental evidence to suggest the role of essential fatty acids (EFA) in neuronal migration, pruning and synaptic plasticity. These processes are implied to be dysfunctional on early stages of schizophrenia, according to neurodevelopmental hypothesis. Numerous epidemiological and clinical trial data support the benefit of EFA rich diets in reducing symptoms in schizophrenia. An EFA rich diet might be of particular importance at the beginning of the illness. As a relatively safe option, EFA supplementation would be a preferable add on therapy in treating individuals with a first episode of schizophrenia (FES) and a short duration of psychotic symptoms. No long term follow-up studies of EFA supplementation in FES patients were carried out. The demonstration of the efficacy of the prophylactic properties of EFAs in relapse prevention in FES patients would be a strong basis for further studies and prescribing EFAs for a large population of patients who are in the early stages of that debilitating illness.