Active clinical trials for "Psychotic Disorders"

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.

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.

Evaluation of the antipsychotic efficacy and safety of ziprasidone versus olanzapine, risperidone or quetiapine in patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective and schizophreniform disorders under naturalistic conditions of clinical practice

The goals of this study are to: Determine the blood levels of intramuscular (IM) olanzapine depot in patients at different points in time after an injection, and compare these levels to the amount of olanzapine in the blood of patients after treated by oral administration with Zyprexa (olanzapine) tablets or by intramuscular administration with Zyprexa IntraMuscular (olanzapine for injection).

This study intends to compare novel antipsychotics ziprasidone and olanzapine, to confirm the findings of an open study -where stable patients receiving olanzapine switched to ziprasidone- which showed maintenance of clinical effect with improvements in all domains of cognitive function at 6 weeks (Daniel, 1999). Direct comparison of the two agents in a well-controlled double-blind fashion will allow an evaluation of the effect on cognitive function in the short and long-term management of patients with recent-onset schizophrenia, schizoaffective and schizophreniform disorder.

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 56 day study is to learn the safety and effectiveness of Corlux in patients who have been diagnosed with psychotic major depression (PMD).

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.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether adjunctive galantamine is effective in the treatment of cognitive impairments in patients with schizophrenia.