View clinical trials related to Disease.
Filter by: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.
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).
The purpose of this investigation is to further develop and test a treatment for word-finding problems in aphasia. The treatment is designed to strengthen meaning associations within categories of words (e.g., animals, tools, fruits). The treatment is also designed to be used as a search strategy in instances of word-finding difficulty. The study was devised to evaluate the extent to which treatment increases the ability to recall trained, as well as untrained, words.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of Response Elaboration Training (RET), which is a speech/language therapy for aphasia. The study is designed to determine whether verbal language production improves in terms of content and length of utterances as a result of treatment.
Objective: The objective of this study is to quantitatively examine the efficacy of Seroquel (active ingredient quetiapine fumarate) in subjects with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). A secondary objective is to characterize the safety and tolerability of utilizing quetiapine in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder. Design: Investigator initiated, 6-week, non-placebo controlled, non-randomized, open-label, single drug, single-center, medication trial. Participants: Volunteers (n = 15) diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID-II). Interventions: Subjects with Borderline Personality Disorder are washed out of all other medications. The subjects are then given the study drug at a dose within the drug's known therapeutic range.
The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness and tolerability of controlled-release paroxetine (Paxil-CR) compared to placebo (an inactive substance) for individuals who continue to have symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) despite receiving prolonged exposure therapy.
Policy makers and consumers are increasingly concerned about the quality and efficiency of care provided to individuals with severe, chronic illnesses such as schizophrenia. These illnesses are expensive to treat and present significant challenges to organizations that are responsible for providing effective care. Occurring in 1% of the United States population, schizophrenia accounts for 10% of permanently disabled people, and 2.5% of all healthcare expenditures. Clinical practice guidelines have been promulgated. Schizophrenia is treatable and outcomes can be substantially improved with the appropriate use of antipsychotic medication, caregiver education and counseling, vocational rehabilitation, and assertive treatment. However, in the VA and other mental health systems, many patients with schizophrenia receive substandard care. Methods are needed that improve the quality of usual care for this disorder while being feasible to implement at typical clinics. To date, most efforts to improve care for schizophrenia have focused on educating clinicians or changing the financing of care, and have had limited success. We believe a more fundamental approach should be tried. While there are many potential strategies, experience in chronic medical illness and mental health support the efficacy of specific approaches. Collaborative care models are one such approach. They are a blueprint for reorganizing practice, and involve changes in division of labor and responsibility, adoption of new care protocols, and increased attention to patients' needs. Although collaborative care models have been successful in other chronic medical conditions, they have not yet been studied in the treatment of schizophrenia. We have developed a collaborative care model for schizophrenia that builds on work in other disorders, and includes service delivery approaches that are known to be effective in schizophrenia. The model focuses on improving treatment through assertive care management, caregiver education and support, and standardized patient assessment with feedback of information to psychiatrists. This project, "EQUIP" (Enhancing Quality Utilization In Psychosis) is implementing collaborative care and evaluating its effectiveness in schizophrenia.
This study will determine whether the herbal product St. John's wort is safe and effective in treating generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD). Study hypothesis: Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort) is more effective in treating GSAD than placebo.
This study will look for abnormalities in a brain of persons affected with spasmodic dysphonia, a form of movement disorder that involves involuntary "spasms" of the muscles in the vocal folds causing breaks of speech and affecting voice quality. The causes of this disorder are not known. The study will compare results of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in people with spasmodic dysphonia and in healthy volunteers. People with adductor or abductor spasmodic dysphonia and healthy volunteers may be eligible for this study. Candidates are screened with a medical history, physical examination, and a test called nasolaryngoscopy. For this test, the inside of the subject's nose is sprayed with a decongestant, and a small, flexible tube called a nasolaryngoscope is passed through the nose to the back of the throat to allow examination of the larynx (voice box). During this procedure, the subject is asked to perform tasks such as talking, singing, whistling, and saying prolonged vowels. The nasolaryngoscope is connected to a camera to record the movements of the vocal folds during these tasks. Eligible participants then undergo MRI of the brain. MRI uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves instead of x-rays to obtain images of body organs and tissues. For this test, the subject lies on a table that slides into the MRI scanner, a narrow metal cylinder, wearing ear plugs to muffle loud knocking sound that occurs during the scan. During MRI anatomical images of the brain are obtained. Subject may be asked to participate in up to two scanning sessions. Each session takes about 1-1/2 hours. Participants may also be asked to volunteer for a brain donation program which is optional. Information gained from donated tissue may lead to better treatments and potential cures for spasmodic dysphonia.
The primary study objective is to conduct a prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial that compares the effectiveness of two approaches for delivering smoking cessation treatment for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). An approach where smoking cessation treatment is integrated into mental health care for PTSD and delivered by mental health providers (experimental condition) will be compared to specialized smoking cessation clinic referral (VA's usual standard of care). Secondary study objectives are to (a) compare the cost outcomes and cost-effectiveness of IC versus USC, (b) identify treatment process variables that explain (mediate) observed differences in smoking abstinence rates for the two study conditions, and (c) determine whether cessation from smoking is associated with worsening of symptoms of PTSD and/or depression.