Active clinical trials for "Psychotic Disorders"

People who have experienced mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder often have a poor understanding of the causes of their illness, and that they are often very worried about how the illness affects their families. In particular, affected individuals worry that there is a high chance that any children that they have will become affected with the same illness. Often, because of this fear, affected individuals choose not to have children. Genetic counseling is a process where information about the causes of illnesses, and about chances for family members of individuals with these illnesses to become similarly affected is provided in a supportive environment by a specially trained healthcare professional. This study will investigate whether genetic counseling can reduce perceptions of risk and stigma, and increase perceived control and knowledge about the causes of the illness, amongst individuals who have a major mental illness.

Women with a close relative who has experienced mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder often have a poor understanding of the causes of the illness, and are often very worried about the chance that any children that they have will become affected with the same illness. Often, because of this fear, these healthy women choose not to have children. Genetic counseling is a process where information about the causes of illnesses, and about chances for family members of individuals with these illnesses to become similarly affected is provided in a supportive environment by a specially trained healthcare professional. This study will investigate whether genetic counseling can reduce perceptions of risk and stigma, and increase perceived control and knowledge about the causes of the illness, amongst women who have a first degree relative with a major mental illness.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the characteristics, clinical responses, and safety issues of patients receiving long-term treatment of Risperidone long-acting injectable. The goal is to evaluate patient outcomes based on pre-existing risk or disease factors and past medication use.

Assessment of ziprasidone safety and efficacy in the treatment of bipolar and schizoaffective disorders.

This study examines whether patients with schizophrenia can benefit from a problem-solving training intervention and whether a work-related social skills training intervention leads to improvements in the patient's performance at work.

Schizophrenia is one of society's most costly medical conditions and the most severe among psychiatric disorders. One of the most important and exciting new concepts in psychiatry is that detection and intervention very early in the course of schizophrenia offers what may be the field's best practical hope for realizing substantive improvements in the outcome of schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Thus, we propose a five year program that focuses on three interconnected major research streams: (1) an evaluation of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a model-driven psychological intervention in preventing or delaying the onset of a psychotic illness; (2) a qualitative study of the pathways to mental health at this time of very high risk; and (3) an exploration of the burden to the healthcare and informal caregiver systems associated with this high risk population.

Weight gain is a serious, common side effect of many antipsychotic medications. On average, the highest amounts of weight gain are found to occur in people taking clozaril and olanzapine, but with significant weight gain occuring in those on the other atypical antipsychotics as well. We, the researchers at the University of North Carolina, propose an open-label observational, pilot study of the changes in weight, BMI, body composition, and lipids, glucose, insulin and other metabolic parameters occurring in subjects as they switch from treatment with olanzapine, risperidone or quetiapine to aripiprazole. This medication switch will be determined prior to their entering this study by their treating psychiatrist. We also will determine resting energy expenditure (REE) and respiratory quotient (RQ) as measured by metabolic cart to determine if either energy expenditure or the propensity to store energy as fat may be involved in any changes to weight that are detected. Food intake, hunger, and physical activity will also be assessed.

The purpose of this study is to determine if Risperdal Consta will affect the healthcare utilization costs in chronically ill schizophrenic patients with multiple admissions to the psychiatric hospital compared to the previous utilization costs under standard oral treatment of any atypical antipsychotic. We hypothesize that higher Risperdal Consta acquisition costs can be offset by reduction in total medical utilization costs, such as hospitalizations, ER visits, unscheduled outpatient visits or incarcerations due to worsening of psychotic symptoms.

Digital medicine systems (DMS) have been designed to assist individuals with the management of their daily health, wellness, and medication use. The DMS is being developed as a healthcare management tool to precisely measure medication adherence and to potentially enhance adherence.

This study will investigate the occurrence of psychosis-spectrum disorders among youth in the Juvenile Justice System and track mental health referrals for these youth in Phase 1, a standard care condition. Then, in Phase 2, an enhanced referral and linkage to care model will be employed, with the aim of bolstering motivation for and engagement in mental health treatment. It is hypothesized that the enhanced referral protocol will promote completion of mental health care referrals.