View clinical trials related to Schizophrenia.
Filter by:22 male patients with schizophrenia and 22 male healthy volunteers will be included in the study. Subjects who meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study will be recruited. After completion of clinical assessments and neuropsychological assessments, all subjects will undergo two multi-modal imaging sessions. In one scan they will receive intranasal oxytocin and in another scan will receive intranasal saline as control. The order of administration of the medication will be counterbalanced and subjects will be blind to the medication administered. Using the simultaneous PET-MRI scanner, PET and fMRI data will be collected simultaneously. Blood will be collected for analysis of oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism and its potential effect on brain activity.
Cognitive impairments are extremely common in schizophrenia and strongly predict deficit in daily functioning, the poor managing medication and multiple hospitalizations. Cognitive remediation is recognized to have an impact on cognitive impairments by engaging preserved cognitive functions or by implementing environmental supports that sustain independent living. Pr. Velligan (University of San Antonio) developed and tested a manualized intervention, called Cognitive Adaptation Training. In this program, trained mental health specialists implement compensatory technique such as environmental supports in the individual's living environment to live more independently and achieve greater self-sufficiency. However, implementing this program needs a lot of professionals and time to maintain CAT effects. This type of intervention is not often done in community care and explains the large number of patients who are dependent on family members for daily living activities. Training family members in this form of intervention would be an appropriate way to resolve these issues. Families expressed a real interest in these types of home-support strategies that CAT offers. Recently, Pr. Kidd and Pr. Velligan developed a CAT version for families and created a manual accessible to people without any knowledge of cognitive deficit. This manual helps families to select specific cognitive-adaptative strategies with their relative to achieve targeted goals. Thism ethod has been translated in French. The aim of this study was to examine whether Web-based family Cognitive Adaptation Training can improve functioning, medication adherence and negative symptoms for individuals with schizophrenia and reduce burden for family members. A total of 60 Dyads consisting of one caregiver and one supported individual with schizophrenia will be randomized to either a Web-based family Cognitive Adaptation Training or an Internet-based control condition. Primary outcome measured will be the score on the life skills profile. Secondary outcomes will include the global score of the Zarit burden Interview, PANSS negative score, and medication adherence. This type of intervention is expected to be developed in territorial area where professionals are not trained to cognitive remediation and therefore substantially lowers the barrier to the deployment of cognitive intervention with other psychosocial interventions for individual with schizophrenia and their caregivers.
Schizophrenia and depression are among the most disabling disorders in all of medicine. Cognitive deficits play a key role in patients' disability, affecting their capacity to contribute actively to society by sustaining employment or academic activity. Moreover, cognitive difficulties tend to persist even after the stabilization of other clinical symptoms. Verbal memory and emotion regulation are two important cognitive domains that are impaired in schizophrenia and depression and are associated with patients' functional outcomes. In this study, we are using brain imaging to investigate the brain mechanisms underlying these cognitive deficits in these populations.
Sleep problems are pervasive in people with schizophrenia. In our study, our goal is to determine whether we can alleviate sleep symptoms and improve quality of life and well-being in patients with major psychiatric disorders through cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) delivered via the internet or in groups. At the same time, the study provides information on factors that are commonly associated with sleep and well-being in patients. The intervention study is conducted as a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial (RCT), in which subjects are randomized into three groups: 1) Treatment as usual (TAU), 2) TAU and Internet-based therapy for insomnia (ICBT-I), and 3) TAU and group therapy for insomnia (GCBT-I).
This project will conduct a confirmatory efficacy trial of two novel psychosocial interventions, Cognitive Enhancement Therapy and Enriched Supportive Therapy, for the treatment of persistent negative symptoms in schizophrenia.
Chronic pain has a highly negative impact on Veterans, especially those with serious mental illness (SMI). Chronic pain leads to poorer mental health and physical functioning, and represents a critical obstacle to rehabilitation and recovery. Despite known high prevalence rates of chronic pain in SMI populations, there is little research to: a) evaluate nonpharmacological pain management strategies in this population, and b) examine directional relations between chronic pain and SMI symptoms. This study aims to address research and clinical gaps by: a) testing the feasibility and acceptability of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain (CBT-CP) - a VA evidence-based psychotherapy for chronic pain - in Veterans with SMI, and b) better assessing the complex relation between chronic pain and psychiatric symptoms and their impact on functioning. Results from this study will inform us as to whether CBT-CP is feasible to implement, acceptable to Veterans with SMI, and worth examining in its standard or in an optimized form in a larger clinical trial.
To study the effect of adjunctive bazedoxifene - a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) in a double blind, placebo-controlled adjunctive study in the treatment of women with schizophrenia. All patients receive standardized antipsychotic medication.
Although insight in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) has been associated with positive outcomes, the effect size of previous treatments on insight has been relatively small to date. The metacognitive basis of insight suggests that metacognitive training (MCT) may improve insight and clinical outcomes in SSD, although this remains to be established. This single-center, assessor-blind, parallel-group, randomised clinical trial (RCT) aims to investigate the efficacy of MCT for improving insight (primary outcome), including clinical and cognitive insight, which will be measured by the Schedule for Assessment of Insight (Expanded version) (SAI-E) and the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale (BCIS), respectively, in (at least) n=126 outpatients with SSD at three points in time: i) at baseline (Time 0); ii) after treatment (Time 1) and iii) at 1-year follow-up (Time 2). SSD patients receiving MCT and controls attending a non-intervention support group will be compared on insight level changes and several clinical and cognitive secondary outcomes after treatment and at follow-up, whilst adjusting for baseline data. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) will be piloted to assess functioning in a subsample of participants. This will be the first RCT testing the effect of group MCT on multiple insight dimensions (as primary outcome) in a sample of unselected patients with SSD, including several secondary clinically relevant outcomes, namely symptom severity, functioning, which will also be evaluated with EMA, hospitalizations and suicidal behaviour.
Hearing voices is probably the worst form of acoustic hallucinations; which can be experienced as severely disturbing and is influenced by diverse factors including the ability of the individual to influence and control the hallucinatory experience itself. In recent years virtual reality has become a treatment option. In the so-called AVATAR Therapy, patients with schizophrenia and acoustic hallucinations design a visual and auditory recreation (avatar) of the entity to which they attribute their hallucinations. Working with a therapist over the course of several sessions, participants change the avatar from controlling to benevolent. Avatar Therapy involves similar processes to learning and cognitive restructuring, comparable to other psychotherapeutic interventions. The investigators plan to conduct an interventional study using a cross-over design, to compare the feasibility and efficacy of virtual reality avatar therapy for patients with acoustic hallucinations (independent of psychiatric diagnosis) with a cognitive behavioural group therapy aimed to improve social competence.
The objective of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of Estradiol patch compared to placebo, as add-on to anti-psychotics in the treatment of women 38 and older with schizophrenia, schizoaffective or schizophreniform disorder.