View clinical trials related to Schizophrenia.
Filter by:Psychosis is a disabling condition that typically has its onset in adolescence and early adulthood. Many young people with psychosis have difficulty navigating services or are reluctant to engage in treatment until their illness becomes an emergency. Consequently, nearly half of all new psychotic disorders are diagnosed in the emergency department (ED). Despite the rationale and evidence for early psychosis intervention (EPI), around half of youth do not access these services. The investigators will use short message service (SMS)/text messaging, a low-cost, low-complexity, youth-friendly approach, to improve transitions in care from the ED and related acute services to EPI services, investigating the intervention's effect on attendance at the first consultation appointment, longer term service engagement, and system-level outcomes. The investigators will also evaluate cost-effectiveness and user perspectives of the intervention.
In the current study, the investigators aim to understand the role of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in improving executive function across neuropsychiatric populations known to have deficits in this cognitive domain.
In this study, investigators will evaluate the efficacy and related mechanism of probiotics and prebiotics as an add-on treatment in improving the antipsychotic induced psychotic syndrome, the cognitive impairment, gastrointestinal function, and metabolic disorders in schizophrenia patients, through genotype identification, psychopathology, neuropsychology, biochemical evaluation and other methods.
Disorders of social cognition, and empathy more specifically, are at the heart of schizophrenic pathology in that they are strongly linked to the social handicap of patients. It is therefore necessary to refine our knowledge of the cognitive and affective processes behind this empathic disorder and to identify objective and easily measurable markers (related to brain functioning collected by electroencephalography) of these processes with the subsequent aim of improving their management. It is also relevant to question the trait/status nature of these empathic disorders by studying these markers in individuals presenting more or less marked schizotypic traits and therefore more or less at risk of developing schizophrenia. Studying the possibility that empathy disorders may be part of the factors of developmental vulnerability for schizophrenia and identifying objective markers of this vulnerability could allow, in case of development of the pathology, a more rapid diagnosis and a more effective management.
The main objective is to determine the effectiveness of a program which consists of multidisciplinary, intensive and individualized interventions, carried out by a group of health professionals (psychiatrist, psychologist, mental health nurse, primary care doctors, pharmacist), during six-month, to improve the global cardiovascular risk (CVR) in patients with schizophrenia. Secondarily, will be analyzed the effectiveness of this program on improving the control in four selected cardiovascular risk factors: hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hyperglycaemia and smoking, after 6 months Methods: randomized study with parallel assignment in two groups: control and intervention group, six-month follow-up. The eligible patients will be 130 adult (≥18 years) outpatients with a current diagnosis of schizophrenia who follow-up by health mental network in Catalonia, who presents at least bad control in one of the four selected cardiovascular risk factors. The intervention group will receive a multidisciplinary and individualized approach (psychoeducational, recommendations of life style and diet, medication adherence and changes in pharmacological strategy, depending on the individual needs assessing after cardiovascular risk screening. The control group will follow the standard management according to the primary care professionals' team. Main measurements: the global CVR at baseline and at six-month follow-up through Framingham tables calibrated for the Catalan population (Registre Gironí del Cor, REGICOR). Secondary measures: they will be determined, at baseline and at six-month follow-up, four cardiovascular risk factors as well: hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hyperglycaemia and smoking, according with the latest recommendations of the Program of preventive activities and health promotion (PAPPS) of the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine. Other measures: anthropometric parameters. Functional Assessment Screening Tool (FAST) and quality of life (EQ-5D).
Primary objective: to examine the efficacy and safety of high frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF rTMS) with H7-coil applied once daily during the twenty days, augmentative to the standard antipsychotic pharmacotherapy and other treatment of negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Targeted population: patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, 18-55 years old with predominant negative symptoms, stable condition for >3 months and unchanged antipsychotic therapy for >1 months and no treatment with antidepressants. Study design: industry independent, multicenter, prospective randomized sham-controlled, two-arms, triple-blind superiority clinical trial with concealed allocation and masked independent outcome assessment. Primary outcome: adjusted median of differences in total SANS score. Adjustment for age, gender, baseline total SANS score, duration of the disorder, and antipsychotic therapy.
People with schizophrenia often have problems with attention, learning and memory and other cognitive abilities that interfere with their work and school performance. Unfortunately, even our best treatments often do not significantly reduce these cognitive problems. The current study investigates whether or not delivering a very small electrical current to people's foreheads (called, transcranial direct current stimulation; (tDCS)) might improve functioning in the front part of the brain and reduce these cognitive problems in people with schizophrenia. tDCS is non-invasive and has been shown to improve cognitive functioning in some preliminary studies. The current study will investigate whether giving tDCS during a task is more effective than giving it during rest (Aim 1), whether delivery of tDCS to the front of the head is more effective than delivery to the back of the head (Aim 2), and whether tDCS delivery will alter levels of a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain (GABA; Aim 3) that is important to cognitive functioning and may be disrupted in people with schizophrenia. Although this study is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat schizophrenia or any other disease, if results are positive it will encourage future large-scale studies to determine if tDCS can become an effective treatment for cognitive problems in people with schizophrenia.
Source-monitoring is a cognitive process that refers to the ability to remember the source of an information. Source-monitoring processes are usually studied using experimental behavioral tasks. These tasks, which are very heterogeneous, are not all available in French and, for the most part, cannot be used in neuroimaging protocols. The aim of this project is to develop an experimental task which allows the measurement of source-monitoring performances, and which is adapted to neuroimaging protocols in a French-speaking population.
The purpose of this study is to determine if taking a synbiotic supplement versus a placebo will reduce symptoms of schizophrenia when used in addition to standard antipsychotic medications.
Many individuals with schizophrenia struggle with auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs). In some cases, these AVHs can be resistant to medication treatment. Previous research has found that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can be helpful in treating symptoms in individuals with other psychiatric disorders, such as depression. This study will assess if tDCS is effective in treating AVHs in individuals with schizophrenia. tDCS is a non-invasive form of brain stimulation which uses a weak current to temporarily excite or inhibit underlying cortical regions with small electrodes placed on the scalp. tDCS has been found to improve mental processes, including attention and memory function. In addition to examining the effect of tDCS on AVHs, this study will assess the effects of tDCS on mood as well as brain electrical activity with electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. As an additional component, participants will be invited to participate in neuroimaging. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), brain activity and structure will be examined before and after tDCS. tDCS will be administered twice daily for 5 consecutive days for a total of 10 sessions. These study findings will contribute to the understanding of the impact of tDCS on AVHs, and will also increase knowledge of sound and memory/cognitive processing in individuals with schizophrenia.