View clinical trials related to Hallucinations.
Filter by:The purpose of this clinical trial is to investigate neural markers of target engagement to further develop auditory control enhancement (ACE) as a novel, inexpensive, and noninvasive intervention to address treatment-refractory auditory hallucinations. Here, we will address questions about the feasibility and acceptability of ACE, as well as the degree to which ACE results in measurable engagement of biophysical and neurophysiological targets. Participants will complete: - Auditory Control Enhancement (ACE): Participants will be assigned by chance (such as a coin flip) into one of two groups to receive a different dosage or level of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) during three sessions of cognitive training. tDCS is used to stimulate the brain for a short period of time. For tDCS one or two thin wet sponges are placed on the head and/or upper arm. The sponges will be connected to electrodes which will deliver a very weak electrical current. The Neuroelectrics Starstim 32 will be used to deliver tDCS. - Interviews: Before and after ACE, in two separate sessions, participants will be asked questions about a) background; b) functioning in daily life and across different phases of your life and past, present and future medical records. - Cognitive Tests: During the interview sessions, participants will also perform cognitive tests. Participants will be asked to complete computerized and pen-and-paper tests of attention, concentration, reading, and problem-solving ability. - EEG scan: Participants will be asked to complete EEG (electroencephalography) studies before and after ACE training. EEG will be measured using the same Neuroelectrics Starstim 32 system used for tDCS. EEG measures the natural activity of the brain using small sensors placed on the scalp. These sensors use conductive gel to provide a connection suitable for recording brain activity. During EEG, participants will watch a silent video while sounds are played over headphones, or sometimes count the sounds. In addition to these auditory tasks, participants will also be asked to perform visual attention tasks, such pressing a button for a letter or image. - Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Scan: Participants will also be asked to complete MRI studies before and after ACE training. An MRI is a type of brain scan that takes pictures of the brain that will later be used to create a 3D model of the brain. The MRI does not use radiation, but rather radio waves, a large magnet and a computer to create the images. Researchers will compare individuals receiving ACE to those receiving sham tDCS during cognitive training to determine effects of ACE.
Rationale: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) - hearing voices that others cannot hear - are common in mental illnesses. For many people AVH are distressing, disabling and persistent, despite medication. Current psychological interventions show low to medium effects. Preliminary studies suggest that an innovative empowering psychological therapy using computer simulations representing the AVH (avatars) can be effective for reducing AVH distress and frequency. Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to improve this treatment. Therefore, we developed a novel VR treatment for this problem. In this study, the effect of this treatment will be investigated. Objective: To test the effect of a novel VR treatment for AVH (VR-VOICES) on distress and frequency of AVH in patients with a psychiatric disorder. Furthermore, to investigate the effect of VR-VOICES on clinical symptoms, quality of life, and healthcare costs of the treatment.
The aim of this study is to compare the effects of a new psychological therapy, Avatar Therapy, to the current standard therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), in improving outcomes in people living with psychotic disorders who have persisting experiences of hearing voices (auditory verbal hallucinations, AVHs).
One hundred schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations will be recruited and randomized into group A and group B. Participants of group A will firstly receive a speech competition training for 2 weeks, and those in group B will firstly receive music intervention as placebo treatment. Specifically, speech competition training include voice competition training twice a day in adjunction with drug treatment, and the patients will be required to perform voice-related tasks according to the instruction. The reaction time, accuracy rate and the number of auditory hallucinations during the task will be recorded. On the other hand, the placebo treatment includes soothing music twice a day for a fixed period of time while patients receiving drug treatment. After 2 weeks, the interventions for group A and group B will be switch. Clinical symptoms will be evaluated using the auditory hallucinations rating scale, positive and negative syndrome scale, belief about voices questionnaire-revised at baseline, 2-week follow up and 4-week follow up. All the data will be analyzed with the Statistical Product and Service Solutions(SPSS) software.
rTMS and MEG for auditory hallucinations via self controlled clinical trials. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can increase or decrease cortical excitability in patients with psychosis (such as schizophrenia). Here, we conducted an open clinical trial on 60 schizophrenics with auditory hallucinations. We searched for targets through magnetoencephalography and then intervened to prove that rTMS guided by magnetoencephalography is effective for auditory hallucinations.
The investigators plan to examine the relation of perceptual variables-basic vision, unusual perceptual experiences(including but not limited to visual hallucinations)-to relevant functional variables such as cognition, mood, and alertness/sleepiness in an online sample of persons with Parkinson's disease (PwPD). It is hypothesized that unusual perceptual experiences will relate significantly to the selected variables. Participants do not need to experience visual hallucinations to be able to participate in this study. This is an observational study only, and not an interventional study.
This study uses a noninvasive technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to study how hallucinations work in schizophrenia. TMS is a noninvasive way of stimulating the brain, using a magnetic field to change activity in the brain. The magnetic field is produced by a coil that is held next to the scalp. In this study the investigators will be stimulating the brain to learn more about how TMS might improve these symptoms of schizophrenia.
Neurofeedback intervention aimed to regulate the superior temporal gyrus (STG) activation and default mode network (DMN) connectivity as well as to reduce the auditory hallucinations (AH) schizophrenia patients with medication resistant AH.
Acute per-anesthetic hypersensitivity reaction (HSA-PA) is a rapidly occurring systemic reaction following injection of a drug during anesthesia (mortality between 3 and 9%). The substances responsible for these reactions in France are Neuro-Muscular Blocking Agents (NMBA) in 60% of cases. The main mechanism mentioned is an immediate systemic hypersensitivity immune reaction (anaphylaxis). The mechanism of immunization to NMBA is not yet understood. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a long-standing therapeutic approach still widely used today, for its high efficiency, particularly in depressive syndromes resistant to antidepressants. It has an efficacy comparable (or even superior) to pharmacological treatments and improves the mortality associated with this disease. Treatment with iterative ECT sessions includes an attack phase with an average of 12 sessions over 4 weeks, with secondary spacing of sessions before switching to antidepressant treatment. These sessions are carried out in the operating room under general anesthesia, thanks to a hypnotic and a NMBA, suxamethonium, as recently recommended by the French Anesthesiology Society in 2020. ECT therefore represent an interesting model of iterative exposure of a relatively homogeneous population to a single highly sensitizing substance, which could make it possible to study the evolution of sensitization as a function of various factors, in particular cumulative exposure, for which no data is currently available.
Hallucinations are a core diagnostic feature of psychotic disorders. They involve different sensory modalities, including auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile, and gustatory hallucinations, among others. Hallucinations occur in multiple different neurological and psychiatric illnesses and can be refractory to existing treatments. Auditory hallucinations and visual hallucinations are found across diagnostic categories of psychotic disorders (schizophrenia, schizoaffective, bipolar disorder). Despite visual hallucinations being approximately half as frequent as auditory hallucinations, they almost always co-occur with auditory hallucinations, and are linked to a more severe psychopathological profile. Auditory and visual hallucinations at baseline also predict higher disability, risk of relapse and duration of psychosis after 1 and 2 years, especially when they occur in combination. Using a newly validated technique termed lesion network mapping, researchers demonstrated that focal brain lesions connected to the right superior temporal sulcus (rSTS) plays a causal role in the development of hallucinations. The rSTS receives convergent somatosensory, auditory, and visual inputs, and is regarded as a site for multimodal sensory integration. Here the investigators aim to answer the question whether noninvasive brain stimulation when optimally targeted to the rSTS can improve brain activity, sensory integration, and hallucinations.