Active clinical trials for "Psychotic Disorders"

A primary hypothesis to be explored here is that, given its pharmacodynamic profile and hypothesized mechanisms associated with schizophrenia, escitalopram will, in comparison to placebo, be effective when added to risperidone or olanzapine treated group in reducing the severity of resistant symptoms, particularly existing subsyndromal anxiety and depression.

The purpose of this study is to assess and compare how risperidone and olanzapine, two antipsychotic medications, affect the regulation of glucose (sugar) in the body.

This study evaluates the safety and tolerability of Asenapine in elderly patients with psychosis.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of a long-acting injectable formulation of risperidone (an antipsychotic medication) and its influence on quality of life, in participants with schizophrenia (psychiatric disorder with symptoms of emotional instability, detachment from reality, often with delusions and hallucinations, and withdrawal into the self).

To evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of aripiprazole in the treatment of acutely relapsed patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder with risperidone as an active control.

Ketamine, an FDA approved anesthetic agent, is becoming the sedative/analgesic of choice for emergency sedation in children because it causes deep sedation with minimal respiratory depression in comparison to other available agents. However, emergence reactions are an important adverse effect of ketamine, characterized by transient changes in cognitive function, dissociation and mild schizophrenia-like symptoms. These cognitive and behavioral effects are dose-dependently induced by ketamine and other antagonists of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor. NMDA receptor hypofunction can disinhibit excitatory (cholinergic/glutamatergic) projections in key areas of the brain, and this has been proposed to explain key features of schizophrenia. Several treatments that block excessive excitatory transmitter release have also been shown to prevent cognitive and behavioral effects of ketamine-induced NMDA receptor hypofunction in humans. Alpha-2 adrenergic agonists, which can presynaptically inhibit acetylcholine release, can prevent mild ketamine-induced behavioral and cognitive symptoms in healthy human adults. However, this prevention strategy has not been evaluated in children. Children currently receive clinically-indicated treatment with the NMDA antagonist, ketamine, and this age group is an important target for pharmacological strategies aimed at the prevention of schizophrenia. This application proposes a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial to test the safety and effectiveness of dexmedetomidine, an FDA approved alpha-2 adrenergic agonist, in preventing ketamine-induced mental symptoms in children. Planned primary analyses will evaluate effects of the hypothesized prevention treatment on clinical and cognitive variables using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The proposed experiments are relevant to future prevention trials for individuals at risk for schizophrenia, and to preventing adverse effects of NMDA antagonist anesthetic agents (ketamine, nitrous oxide).

The purpose of this study is to document the long-term safety and tolerability of risperidone, formulated as a long-acting injectable, in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder; in addition, to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of long-acting risperidone and its effect on quality of life

Corlux (mifepristone) is a new medication that modulates the body's use of a hormone called cortisol. Under normal conditions, cortisol and other hormones are created by the body in response to physical and emotional stress, triggering a healthy stress response. People who suffer from psychotic major depression may have unusually high levels of cortisol circulating within them or abnormal patterns of cortisol levels, overloading the stress response mechanism and causing symptoms of psychosis such as delusional thoughts or hallucinations. If Corlux can keep the body's cortisol receptors from being overloaded, the stress response system may return to normal function, which may result in improvement of symptoms. The purpose of this study is to allow patients who have already participated in an earlier 8 week study of Corlux versus placebo (an inactive pill) to receive additional courses of treatment with Corlux periodically if a psychotic episode should reappear during a period of one year.

The primary features of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are characterized by positive (inability to think clearly and distinguish reality from fantasy) and negative symptoms (reduction or absence of normal behavior or emotions). Other symptoms include reduced ability to recall and learn information, difficulty in problem solving or maintaining productive employment. Asenapine is an investigational drug that may help to correct the above characteristics of schizophrenia by altering the inbalance of brain hormones such as dopamine and serotonin. This is a 12-month trial that will test the efficacy and safety of asenapine using an active comparator (olanzapine) in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. Patients who complete the 12-month trial will have the option of continuing on drug until the treatment code for the 12-month trial is unblinded.

This study investigates the neuroprotective properties of low-dose lithium in young individuals at ultra-high risk of developping a first psychotic episode. Fourty individuals having some symptoms of an emerging psychotic disorders (without meeting the threshold for a full-blown mental illness) will be treated with a low dose of lithium (about a third of the dose that is usually used to treat acute mania). We will assess the progression of the conditions of these individuals on a montly bases for a year. We will do behavioural, cognitive and imaging assessments prior start of the treatment, after three months and one year. We hope to demonstrate that low dose lithium will stop or even reverse the progression of disease. We expect that behavioral, cognitive and in vivo brain imaging parameters in those individuals treated with low dose lithium improve, compared to the monitoring group.