Active clinical trials for "Schizophrenia"

Non-interventional study aiming to provide data on the subjective effects of antipsychotic medication assessing subjective well-being and global functioning of patients with Schizophrenia under antipsychotic medication. Moreover it aims to assess their adherence to the treatment and will investigate whether there is any correlation of these factors with the clinical condition of these patients.

Non-interventional, multicenter, cross-sectional study to evaluate the mental care received by schizophrenic patients and their caregivers in Spain irrespective of the drug prescribed.

Background: Individuals with schizophrenia have a significantly higher tendency to develop substance abuse or dependence than the general population. For instance, people with schizophrenia smoke much more than the general population, and many are dependent on street drugs such as cocaine and heroin. However, these individuals are rarely included in research studies that might provide more information about treatments for both schizophrenia and substance abuse. Strong evidence suggests that schizophrenia and substance dependence have similar effects on the brain, affecting attention, memory, and eye movement. Other research indicates that schizophrenia and substance dependence affect the same parts of the dopamine system, contributing to problems in brain function that require treatment. These new developments provide a strong rationale to study the combination of schizophrenia and substance dependence. Nicotine may help improve brain function and thinking in individuals with both schizophrenia and drug dependence. Some of the thinking and memory problems experienced by these individuals can be treated with nicotine. However, more research is needed to determine exactly how nicotine affects individuals with both schizophrenia and drug dependence. Objectives: To determine whether individuals with schizophrenia and drug dependence show impairment in tests of eye tracking, attention, and memory compared with healthy control subjects. To evaluate the effect of nicotine on eye tracking, attention, and memory in individuals with both schizophrenia and substance dependence. Eligibility: - Current smokers (at least 10 cigarettes per day for the past year) between 18 and 55 years of age who (1) have been diagnosed with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder, (2) have been diagnosed with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and are currently using heroin and/or cocaine, or (3) are healthy individuals with no family history of psychotic illness. Design: The study will consist of one training session and three testing sessions. Each session will last about 2 hours. The training session will introduce participants to the study tests and evaluate their tolerance of the nicotine nasal spray used in the study. Participants who cannot tolerate the higher dose of the spray will not continue in the study. At the start of each testing session, smokers will have one cigarette to standardize the time of the most recent exposure to nicotine. During the testing sessions, participants will receive a placebo spray, a lower dose of nicotine, or a higher dose of nicotine, and then will be asked to perform tests that evaluate attention, memory, and other thinking tasks.

The role of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) in clozapine dose adjustment have been debated. Blood samples for s-clozapine monitoring should be drawn 12 hours post dose. The scope of this trial is to describe changes of s-clozapine and s-N-desmethyl-clozapine within the range of 10-14 hours after the last administration of clozapine .

Individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are dying younger than the general population; cancer is a leading cause of death in this population. People with SMI have higher rates of dying from breast, lung, and colon cancer, and disparities in treatment appear to be one contributing factor. Individuals with SMI may be diagnosed with more advanced stage cancer and less likely to receive stage-appropriate cancer treatment. Although collaborative care models integrating medical and psychiatric care have shown promise in other populations, the challenge of treating SMI and cancer is distinct and relatively understudied. Patients may have uncontrolled psychiatric symptoms that can impact their understanding of their diagnosis and treatment decisions. Oncologists have less training and inadequate time to address multiple unmet needs. Mental health care is frequently fragmented from cancer care. The investigators want to understand if it is helpful for patients with SMI to be connected to a psychiatrist and case manager when cancer is diagnosed. Optimizing psychiatric symptoms and facilitating communication between the patient, the oncology team, and mental health providers may improve care. The goal is to pilot a pragmatic intervention for patients with cancer and SMI that can be integrated into cancer care, is acceptable to patients and oncology clinicians, and may promote the delivery of stage-appropriate cancer treatment to an underserved population. Patients will be connected to a psychiatrist and case manager at cancer diagnosis who will follow the patient and communicate with the oncology team during the 12 week intervention. All participants will complete brief surveys at baseline, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks. Oncology clinicians will provide feedback about the intervention at 12 weeks. Cancer treatment received and healthcare utilization will be assessed at 6 months post-intervention.

To assess if PF-04958242 can attenuate the ketamine-induced cognitive impairment in verbal learning and memory, episodic memory and spatial working memory in healthy volunteers.

This is a pilot study. We are testing the physiologic, immune and chemical responses to stress. We believe the results of all measures to stress will be blunted in schizophrenia compared to healthy controls. We will test sex, early life stress and other factors on the relationship to a stress response.

It is well established in the scientific literature that people with schizophrenia smoke tobacco cigarettes at rates up to three times that of the general population, relapse more frequently, and die an average of 25 years earlier from cigarette smoking and other life-style attributable illnesses. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are becoming increasingly popular with smokers worldwide and new research suggests that e-cigarettes are appealing to smokers with schizophrenia. There is a paucity of research focused on the experience of smokers with schizophrenia who decide to try an e-cigarette. A well-designed prospective-observational study is needed to learn more about the influence of e-cigarette use on cigarette smoking behavior and mental and physical health among smokers with schizophrenia. In response, the investigators have designed a study titled, Role of an electronic cigarette on smoking displacement in smokers with schizophrenia: A prospective 3-month pilot study (SchizEcig).

In the last decades the impact of several variables on patients' social functioning has been investigated with conflicting findings. The involved variables might be grouped in three main categories: a) disease-related variables; b) personal resources; c) context-related factors. The present study is aimed to identify factors that affect most real-life functioning of subjects with schizophrenia and to assess negative and depressive symptoms, neurocognitive deficits and impairment of social cognition. Domains of negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunctions most associated with impairment of real-life functioning will be identified and appropriate data analyses will be carried out to define whether it has a direct or indirect impact on real-life functioning. The research units of Turin and Genua will also investigate the relationships between insight into the illness and real-life social functioning. The research unit of Genua will evaluate prevalence and course of depressive symptoms, insight impairment and neurocognitive deficits, and will define the relationships of these aspects with suicidal behavior and real-life social functioning. The Naples research unit n.1 will investigate the hypothesis that deficits of preattentive and perceptual functions underlie impaired social cognition and negative symptoms. An electrophysiological study will be carried out in which abnormalities of event-related components and gamma rhythm synchronization, relevant to preattentive and perceptual stages of information processing, will be studied as endophenotypes of the disorder. The study will also investigate the heritability of disease-related variables by evaluating them in non-affected, first-degree relatives of subjects with schizophrenia. The research unit of Bari will test functionality of genetic variants relevant to dopaminergic signaling, that might confer risk for neurocognitive and related prefrontal dysfunction assessed by specific functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigms. The Naples research unit n. 6 will perform an association study between selected putative schizophrenia genes and specific psychometric, neurophysiological and neurocognitive schizophrenia endophenotypes; moreover, the research unit will search for de novo copy-number variations (CNV) as putative risk factors for schizophrenia or schizophrenia endophenotypes and for de novo protein-altering mutations that may contribute to the genetic component of schizophrenia endophenotypes. The Naples research unit n. 5 will be responsible for defining a standardized protocol for the assessment of medical comorbidities in subjects with schizophrenia. All psychiatric research units will contribute to assess the role of factors related to the context in modulating the impact of variables related to the disease on real-life social functioning.

This open-label, Phase 1 study will investigate the 5-hydroxytryptamine 6 (5-HT6) receptor occupancy in the brain using positron emission tomography (PET) following single oral doses of SLV354. Up to 22 healthy male subjects and male subjects with stable schizophrenia, between 18-55 years of age are to complete the study.