View clinical trials related to Mental Disorders.
Filter by:Clinically, many patients with AD show no response or minimal response to antipsychotics for symptoms of agitation/aggression or psychosis, or they have intolerable side effects on these medications. Antipsychotics have a wide range of side effects, including the risk of increased mortality (60-70% higher rate of death on antipsychotic compared to placebo) that led to an FDA black box warning for patients with dementia; a more recent review and meta-analysis showed a 54% increased risk of mortality. In addition, some patients show only partial response to antipsychotics and symptoms persist. For these reasons, the investigators need to study alternative treatment strategies. Currently, there is no FDA-approved medication for the treatment of psychosis or agitation in AD. The investigators innovative project will examine the efficacy and side effects of low dose lithium treatment of agitation/aggression with or without psychosis in 80 patients with AD in a randomized, doubleblind, placebo-controlled, 12-week trial (essentially a Phase II trial). The results will determine the potential for a large-scale clinical trial (Phase III) to establish the utility of lithium in these patients.
This study will determine whether a program where a health coach works with participants on heart healthy behaviors and treatment of risk factors is coordinated with primary care can reduce overall heart disease risk in people with serious mental illness.
This trial addresses a serious and all-too-frequent public health problem, namely early-onset disruptive behavior problems in young children. The focus is on testing an online treatment program which empowers parents to help their children to improve their mental health and behavioral functioning. At the conclusion of the study, the investigators will know whether the online-delivered program works as well as an established staff-delivered program, with respect to child disruptive behavior problems, parenting, parent/family stress, consumer satisfaction, and value analysis.
With medication, many individuals with psychosis experience a remission from hallucinations and delusions, the most salient aspects of the disorders. However, alleviation of these symptoms is not associated with recovery of everyday functioning in important areas like working, socializing, maintaining the household, and recreational pursuits. The reason these difficulties with functioning persist is that psychotic disorders are associated with considerable difficulties with cognitive functions such as attention, memory, and planning. Cognitive impairments persist even when the delusions and hallucinations are treated, and in fact account for most of the persistent impairments in functioning. Recently, psychological treatments called Cognitive Remediation have been developed and tested in research settings, where techniques that train the brain to process information more efficiently result in very large improvements in cognition. However, there are two major hurdles remaining as investigators attempt to determine how this treatment can graduate from research laboratories to become a widespread clinical treatment. First, cognitive remediation in research settings is very intensive: it requires frequent visits with specialized therapists who deliver the treatment to groups of patients. This makes it quite difficult for people with psychosis, who might not have the financial means or motivation to travel and who might be experiencing symptoms that make it unlikely that they will attend groups, to participate fully if the traditional research techniques were directly transported to a clinical setting. The second hurdle is that even though cognitive remediation improves cognition, it does not always transfer to everyday behavior changes. Investigators recently found that this transfer to functioning is more meaningful and durable when using additional techniques that teach people skills such as being aware of your own thinking and to use multiple, flexible problem solving strategies. The goal of this project is to address these limitations by testing a new development in the treatment: delivering cognitive remediation to participants in their homes, with cognitive exercises and therapist support provided online. The techniques are the same as successful in-session cognitive remediation, but those with psychosis can engage in the intervention at home and therapists will be able to service more individuals with online discussion forums and video demonstrations. The more people engage in cognitive remediation, the better the outcomes. This is particularly true for receiving a consistent dose of exercise, rather than in longer, once per week sessions typical of traditional psychotherapies. The online component of this program provides patients with the ability to engage in a higher and more consistent rate of exercises and skill development, and we will explore whether the amount and continuity of engagement is associated with larger and broader improvements.
The aim of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of a culturally adapted parenting support program for Somali parents living in Sweden on children's and parent´s mental health. In recent years the Somali population in Sweden has increased and is currently one of the largest groups among ethnic minorities. Most of the Somali people have arrived as refugees and have experienced war, trauma and conflict. Research shows that migration to a new social context/society is challenging for a family and may together with previous experiences of war, separation, create stress and mental illness. This leads to consequences such as family violence, child abuse, relational problems, drug problems and school problems for children. There is a vast knowledge on the association between parents' mental health, positive parent-child relationship and children's health and well-being. Previous studies have shown that parenting programs aimed to support parent-child relationship and/or improve parental skills have positive effects on parental mental health and on children's behavior. Most municipalities in Sweden offer their residents a structured parenting program, but these programs do not reach those of ethnic minorities. Studies show that parenting programs mainly target parents who can speak Swedish fluently and that the parenting programs are not yet culturally adapted.
The purpose of the study is to implement a full-scale efficacy trial of the My Life program. Conducted in partnership with the Oregon DHS Foster Care Program, the impact of the intervention will be being evaluated with a randomized experimental longitudinal design. Two hundred and ten youth, ages 16.5-17.5, will be enrolled in 3 waves, and randomly assigned to either a comparison group that receives typical foster care services or to a treatment group that participates in the key elements of the model, including instruction in self-determination skills, support in leading their own coordinated inter-agency transition planning meetings, and participation in workshops with mentors. Outcomes, including youth self-determination, quality of life, employment, mental health, educational achievement and independent living, are assessed pre-intervention, at the conclusion of intervention, and at 12 months post-intervention. The proposed study will provide important information on the efficacy of the model for all youth exiting the foster care system, yielding unequivocal data on whether enhanced self-determination mediates, at least partially, various outcome areas, including mental health, educational achievement, employment, independent living, and quality of life; evaluating the effect of special education status, gender, and race as moderating influences on the impact of the intervention. Foster care experiences, such as trauma and placement instability, will be considered as covariates; direct effects of the intervention on these key foster care experiences will also be explored.
Anxiety disorders affect 40 to 50% of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), contributing to substantial distress and impairment. The goal of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a personalized type of psychotherapy against standard-care psychotherapy for addressing anxiety in youth with ASD.
The investigators propose to test whether curcumin nanoparticles will improve behavioral measures and biomarkers of cognition and neuroplasticity in patients with schizophrenia who are already receiving a stable dose of antipsychotic.
The overall purpose of this study is to determine whether a family history of psychosis is associated with an altered cannabinoid system. This will be tested by studying individuals with and without a family history of psychosis and comparing their responses to delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a probe of the cannabinoid system. We hypothesize, that compared to controls with no family history of psychoses, individuals with a family history of psychoses will have an altered response to THC.
Cognitive deficits are known to be a core feature of schizophrenia and seem to become manifest in the prodromal or Ultra-High Risk (UHR) state of psychosis. The cognitive deficits are known to pose a critical barrier to functional recovery. Hence it is of vital importance to find intervention strategies that can alleviate these cognitive deficits and consequently improve daily functioning, and quality of life, as well as the prognosis for UHR-patients. The investigators will examine whether: - Cognitive remediation therapy will be superior to standard treatment in improving cognitive functioning in UHR- patients (null hypothesis: No difference between the two groups). - Cognitive remediation therapy will be superior to standard treatment in improving psychosocial functioning and clinical symptoms in UHR-patients (null hypothesis: No difference between the two groups).