View clinical trials related to Schizophrenia.
Filter by:Learning includes the ability to generalize to new situations and respond to similar, yet not identical stimuli. In previous work, focused on stimulus generalization in healthy volunteers, tones that were negatively reinforced induce wider generalization curves than tones that were positively reinforced, and these in turn induce wider curves than neutral memory (Schechtman et al, 2010). The current study aimed to evaluate those patterns in different clinical disorders (including Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder, MDD, Anxiety disorders (Panic and GAD) and PTSD, and healthy subjects that would be used as a control), with consideration whether those patterns are unique to any specific disorder or state. The generalization patterns evaluation would conduct twice though enable to compare the stability of those patterns during the course of the illness (i.e during remission compared to acute state). The basic paradigm based on conditioning of a tone (sound) with unpleasant noise, and extinction of that conditioning afterword. During the 60 minutes of evaluation, the capability to discriminate between the original tone and similar but not identical tones, and the tendency to categorize similar tones as identical to the original tone. A neutral tone without conditioning will be used as reference. The clinical diagnosis will conduct by a senior psychiatrist, and the state would be evaluated using standard questionnaires
The objective of the study was to study the effects of donepezil on cognition in patients with schizophrenia. The investigators conducted a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of donepezil as adjunctive treatment to antipsychotic drugs on patients with schizophrenia.
To examine the feasibility of molecular imaging markers in clinical psychopharmacology
To determine the effects of aerobic exercise on hippocampal volumes and severity of psychotic symptoms in a population of psychosis patients compared to healthy age/gender matched volunteers. Psychosis patients often suffer from a number of cognitive difficulties, including poor memory function, poor problem-solving capacity and difficulties with attention and concentration. Poor fitness and associated neurovascular deficits may arise from various sources, including poor mental health, adverse side effects of antipsychotic medications and independent cardiovascular deficits that may be due to neurodevelopmental abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia. These factors are likely contributing to markedly increased stroke risk and early mortality. These problems are not well addressed by current clinical treatments, nor is neurovascular stroke risk readily or accurately detected in clinic.In contrast, evidence from aging research strongly suggests that increased cardiovascular fitness may provide numerous cognitive benefits by promoting brain growth, particularly in the frontal lobes and the hippocampi, while reducing the risk of stroke. The current study will measure the effects of aerobic exercise on brain volumes in a population of chronic psychosis patients to determine if 1) hippocampal volumes increase in response to exercise and 2) if parallel improvements in cognitive functioning occur. Additionally, baseline and follow-up stroke risk will be assessed using a novel non-invasive approach of retinal imaging to determine the presence of underlying neurovascular pathology.
Pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia has limitations such as residual positive and negative symptoms, cognitive deficits and intolerable side effects. Refractory schizophrenia (particularly clozapine-resistant) is still a difficult clinical issue at present. According to the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) hypothesis, adjuvant NMDA-enhancing agents may have therapeutic benefit. DAAOI-1, a D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) inhibitor, is a NMDA-enhancing agents. The aim of this project is to examine the effectiveness and safety of DAAOI-1 adjuvant treatment for clozapine-resistant refractory schizophrenia patients in a randomized, double-blind, placebo - controlled trial.
The purpose of this study is to assess the long-term efficacy of Olanzapine Pamoate (OP) Depot in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
The aim of the study is to evaluate the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation(rTMS)in the first-episode Schizophrenic patients: the clinical and MRI findings
Schizophrenia is a disabling mental disease affecting about 1% of the worldwide population. There is an overall heritability estimate of 68% for the underlying liability to schizophrenia. Molecular epigenetic studies can overcome the complexities of traditional genetic studies and provide a new framework for the search of etiological factors in schizophrenia. DNA methylation provides an example of an epigenetic process that affects gene expression. Several postmortem experiments have found that increased DNA methylation at the glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD67) and reelin promoter, and hypomethylation of membrane-bound catechol-O-methyltransferase (MB-COMT) promoter gene in prefrontal cortex of schizophrenia patients. Because it is impossible to obtain brain tissue from schizophrenia patients clinically, the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) can partly represent the brain gene expression. It has been reported to use PBMC as biomarkers for epigenetic abnormalities, such as histone acetylation and methylation, in schizophrenia. To the investigators best knowledge, gene promoter DNA methylation abnormalities in schizophrenia have been limited to postmortem study. It warrants to studying the DNA methylation using schizophrenia's PBMC. Recently, endophenotype strategy has emerged as an important tool in understanding the genetic architecture of schizophrenia. Some cognitive functions, such as attention and working memory (WM), have been used as candidate endophenotypes for genetic studies in schizophrenia. Synchronized GABA neurotransmission in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is required for adequate attention and working memory, suggesting that impairments in GABA-mediated inhibition in the prefrontal cortex could contribute to the endophenotype presentations in schizophrenia.
The primary objective of this study is to compare the effects of paliperidone versus oral antipsychotics on changes in brain parenchymal volume, number of relapses, and time to relapse during a one-year period of follow up of patients with new onset schizophrenia.
This proposal responds to Request for Applications RFA-MH-08-131, which seeks applications that propose to enrich pre-existing resources for schizophrenia in the NIMH Human Genetics Initiative and to apply genomic methods to further our understanding of the molecular etiology of the disorder. The overarching aims of this proposal are to quickly and cost-effectively ascertain a large sample of trio families affected by schizophrenia, and to discover causal variants for the disorder in the first family-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) of the disorder. In Taiwan, there is no such kind of policy to support this kind of GWAS study as it is a very expensive study, including collecting large family samples and genome-wide SNP scanning. The investigators, thus, collaborate with Professor Ming T, Tsuang and his intended subcontracted researchers to apply for this project. The investigators, the research team in Taiwan, will collect 3800 trio families (11400 subjects) of schizophrenia. The investigators will meet the overarching goals of this project by accomplishing several Specific Aims, as follows: 1) Rapidly ascertain schizophrenia trio families from Taiwanese clinical ascertainment sites; 2) Supplement NIMH Genetics Initiative collections by sending all clinical data and biomaterials to the appropriate repositories; 3) Assess the association of schizophrenia with a genome-wide panel of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and their constituent haplotypes; 4) Analyze quantitative schizophrenia phenotypes such as age at onset ; 5) Perform a genome-wide survey for copy-number variations related to schizophrenia; 6) Test for gene-gene interactions (epistasis); and 7) Test for gene-environment interactions, such as the well-established effect of season of birth.