View clinical trials related to Schizoaffective Disorder.
Filter by:The overall goal of this project is to identify intermediate phenotypes for psychosis across the schizophrenia and bipolar disorders boundary with implications for future genetic studies. Recent studies provide considerable evidence that schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder may share overlapping etiologic determinants. Identifying disease-related genetic effects is a major focus in schizophrenia and bipolar research, with enormous implications for diagnosis and treatment for these two disorders. Efforts have been multifaceted, with the ultimate goal of describing causal paths from specific genetic variants, to changes in neuronal functioning, to altered brain anatomy, to behavioral and functional impairments. Parallel efforts have identified and refined several alternative endophenotypes that are stable, heritable, have (partly) known biological substrates, and are associated with psychosis liability. Although many such endophenotypes have been individually studied in schizophrenia, and to a lesser extent in bipolar disorder, no study has comprehensively assessed a broad panel of these markers in the two disorders with parallel recruitment, and the extent to which they mark independent aspects of psychosis risk, or their overlap in the two disorders. In this research project, we will examine a broad panel of putative endophenotypes in affected individuals and their first degree, biological relatives in order to: 1) characterize the degree of familial phenotypic overlap between schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorders; 2) identify patterns of endophenotypes unique to the two disorders; and, 3) contrast the heritability of endophenotypes across the disorders. We will obtain measures of neurophysiology (e.g., eye tracking, P50 gating, PPI, and P300), neurocognition (e.g., attention/vigilance, episodic and working memory), and brain structure (e.g., volumes of gray and white matter in specified brain regions). Blood samples will also be collected and stored for formal DNA linkage analyses using the independent phenotypes identified above. All volunteers will also be given the option to donate dermal biopsies for future research studies. Establishing similarities and differences in the endophenotypic signatures within schizophrenia and bipolar families will provide important insights for future genetic studies, and clarify concepts about common and distinct aspects of pathophysiology, potentially meaningful heterogeneity with disorders, and the clinical boundaries of the two most common psychotic disorders in adult psychiatry. This line of investigation will potentially impact our conceptualization of psychotic disorders, help us make critical strides to identify the pathophysiology of psychosis, and guide development of new specific treatments targeting particular deficits.
This is a 12-week, with a 32-week follow-up, rater-blind, randomized controlled trial to determine whether patients with chronic schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder receiving two different antipsychotics simultaneously will have any significant change in psychopathology following conversion to antipsychotic monotherapy. Additionally, the effects of conversion to antipsychotic monotherapy will be assessed by neurocognitive tests. The study will be conducted at the Clinical Research and Evaluation Facility (CREF), a specialized research unit jointly operated by the Nathan S Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (NKI) and Rockland Psychiatric Center (RPC). Patients will be recruited from the regular in-patient units of RPC and transferred to the CREF. Following baseline assessments, patients will be randomized to continued antipsychotic polypharmacy treatment or to systematic conversion to monotherapy. Conversion to antipsychotic monotherapy will be assessed across multiple domains of psychopathology using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS). The primary outcome measure is PANSS total score. The secondary outcome measure is time on medication (all-cause dropouts). Mixed Model Repeated Measures (MMRM) will test the hypothesis that conversion to antipsychotic monotherapy will show minimal change from the control group.
The primary objective of this study is to determine if NAC, added to existing antipsychotic treatment, is superior to placebo for cortical erosion in patients with early stage psychosis. The primary hypothesis is that there will be significantly less cortical erosion as measured by cortical thickness, cortical volume and cortical white matter density (assessed by DTI) in patients treated for 12 months with NAC as compared to those treated with placebo. The secondary objectives of this study are to determine if 12 months of NAC add-on treatment is superior to placebo for fMRI determined working memory and semantic memory tasks, cortical MR spectroscopy measures (glutathione, N-acetylaspartate, and glutamine/glutamate levels), electrophysiologically determined attention measures (e.g., mismatch negativity, P300), symptoms, functional measures and cognitive functioning.
The investigators would like to know the association of gene polymorphisms and metabolic adversities in clozapine-treated patients with schizophrenia in Taiwan.
The purpose of this study is to determine how services should be provided to reduce symptoms and improve life functioning for adolescents and adults who have been recently diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The objective of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of Pramipexole, Minocycline and Aspirin compared to placebo, as add-on to anti-psychotics in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia.
The purpose of this study is to estimate the level of symptomatic and psychosocial remission of patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder in standard clinical practice as a function of the degree of adherence to antipsychotic treatment. The secondary objectives are to study the level of community integration of the patients included in the study, and its influencing factors, to analyze the role of various sociodemographic factors, factors related to the course of disease and the psychopathological status of the patient in community integration and remission, to analyze the potential predictors of a favorable course (symptomatic and psychosocial remission) and a poor course (no symptomatic or psychosocial remission), to assess the impact of treatment adherence on the change in the functional and community integration status of patients (based on the occupation, independence level, and degree of disability variables), to assess the significance of premorbid (academic and social) adjustment in the symptomatic and functional remission and the community integration status of patients and to correlate the level of insight to the remission and integration status of patients.
This study will integrate and adapt a cognitive remediation (Cognitive Enhancement Therapy [CET]) and an affect regulation (Personal Therapy [PT]) intervention for 50 individuals with schizophrenia that misuse cannabis. Participants will be randomized to CET/PT plus treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU alone and treated for 18 months.
The objective of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of raloxifene compared to placebo, as add-on to anti-psychotics in the treatment of post menopausal patients with schizophrenia.
The purpose of this study is to get a better understanding of the side effect burden and identify predictors of psychotic, mood and aggressive disorders in children and adolescents. The study's primary aim is to identify genetic risk factors for weight gain and metabolic abnormalities.