Schizophrenia;Schizoaffective Clinical Trial
Official title:
The Effects of Adjunctive Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Treatment Adherence in Schizophrenia
This study seeks to explore the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive method of brain stimulation, as an adjunctive treatment to improve antipsychotic medication adherence in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). The investigators hypothesize that 20 sessions of tDCS will improve medication nonadherence in patients with SCZ.
The proposed study will investigate the effects of adjunctive tDCS on antipsychotic medication adherence by targeting brain regions implicated in impaired insight, a primary contributor to medication nonadherence in patients with SCZ. Participants will be randomized to receive either active or sham tDCS. tDCS will be administered twice-daily for 10 days (20 sessions) excluding weekends. Brain scans will be performed before and after 10 days of tDCS. Antipsychotic drug adherence will be assessed based primarily on pill-count, and secondarily, plasma level concentrations and clinician-judgement. ;