View clinical trials related to Schizophrenia.
Filter by:Rationale: There is growing consensus that targeting negative symptoms such as social withdrawal is essential to be able to preserve social participation, thereby reducing the high yearly costs of schizophrenia. Aaron T. Beck, founder of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and colleagues have developed and investigated a new CBT approach, in which they target inactivity in a chronic schizophrenia population with severe negative symptoms The therapy is based on accumulating evidence that dysfunctional beliefs in conjunction with neurocognitive impairments can impede social functioning. These results suggest that CBT can be highly successful in establishing clinically meaningful improvements. However, the therapy has not yet been investigated in a recent-onset population. Objective: To evaluate the applicability and (cost-) effectiveness of a shortened, partly group based, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy focussing on social activation (CBTsa) in patients with recent onset schizophrenia. Hypotheses: 1) the investigators hypothesized that CBT focused on social activation (CBTsa) in a recent-onset population will result in a substantial reduction in severity of negative symptoms, in particular social withdrawal. 2) The investigators expected that CBTsa would lead to an improvement in terms of Quality of Life and overall functioning. 3) The investigators expected this intervention to result in a reduction in need for care and QALY gain as a consequence of improvement in symptoms and social functioning. Study design: Single blind randomized controlled trial with 6 month-follow up. Study population: Patients between 18 and 35 years old with negative symptoms of at least moderate severity, and who have been recently (< 2yrs) diagnosed with schizophrenia. Intervention (if applicable): Individual and group-based CBT intervention targeting social withdrawal. Main study parameters/endpoints: Change in negative symptoms, Social functioning, and quality of life, Productivity losses.
An exacerbated response to stress mediated by activation of the Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Adrenocortical (HPA) axis is thought to play an important role in the onset, worsening and relapse of schizophrenia. Subjects at risk for schizophrenia (unaffected siblings of patients) displayed an intermediate hyperreactivity to stress as compared with patients and healthy controls. Symptoms of schizophrenia can be reduced with noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) applied over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Importantly, this same DLPFC NIBS protocol can modulate decision making processes and modulate biological reactivity to stress by decreasing salivary cortisol concentration in acute stress condition.
The purpose of this study is to examine whether cerebellar stimulation can be used to improve cognitive deficits and mood in patients with schizophrenia, autism, bipolar disorder, Parkinson's disease, and major depression.
Social cognition concerns the understanding of how people think about others and how that, in turn, influences our behavior, feelings, and social interactions. schizophrenia social-cognitive impairment is profound (effect size D>1.2), medication resistant and critically limits functional well-being . Social cognition involves complex patterns of coordinated activity within numerous cortical and subcortical networks, making it a difficult target for clinical neuroscience investigation. Yet, prior research demonstrates that sensory-perceptual dysfunction in schizophrenia can upwardly generalize into higher-order social-cognitive impairment making perception a tractable and fruitful approach for studying social cognition in schizophrenia. Here, the investigators explore how distortions in perception of temporal coincidence can contribute to the aberrant inferences of physical causation and social agency.
Patients with schizophrenia suffer from autobiographical memory disorders. Patients have difficulty to remember vividly personal past events when they are specifically asked for. Indeed, this task requires a good executive functioning to retrieve precise information stored in long term memory. Interestingly, executive functioning has been showed impaired in schizophrenia and studies showed that their autobiographical memory impairments were directed related to their executive dysfunction. Yet, in daily life people remember more often autobiographical memories spontaneously, without trying voluntarily to recall them. In that case, the involuntary recall of personal past events is much less sustained by executive functioning. In this protocol the investigators would like to investigate and compare subjective characteristics of involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memories in order to highlight the role of executive dysfunction in patients' autobiographical memory impairments.
Development of interventions that can effectively target and remediate the cognitive and functional impairment associated with serious mental illness is a treatment priority. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe, non-invasive neuromodulation technique that is capable of stimulating brain activity to facilitate learning. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the pairing of two therapeutic techniques, cognitive remediation and tDCS, as a cognitively enhancing intervention. This study is designed to test the hypotheses that cognitive remediation paired with tDCS will be more efficacious than cognitive remediation delivered with sham stimulation and that intervention-induced cognitive change will be sustainable. To examine the incremental benefit of pairing tDCS with cognitive remediation, clinically stable outpatients between the ages of 18-65 who have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder will be enrolled in a double-blind, double-baseline, sham-controlled clinical trial. Participants will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either tDCS or sham stimulation concurrent with working memory focused cognitive remediation. Training will be offered to participants in a small group format. Training will consist of 48 sessions, with 2-3 sessions scheduled in a week. Each training session will last 2 hours. One hour will be spent completing cognitive exercises that require working memory skills on a computer. TDCS or sham stimulation will be offered concurrent with the first 20 minutes of training with a StarStim neuromodulator. One mA of anodal stimulation will be applied to the left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex and the cathodal electrode will be placed in the contralateral supraorbital position. Upon completion of working memory training, participants will transition to a 45-minute bridging group focus on application of cognitive skills in everyday life. To assess intervention-induced change, working memory, other aspects of cognition, functional capacity, community functioning, and symptom severity will be assessed pre- and post-intervention. Sustainability of intervention-induced change will be assessed with an assessment session 6 weeks post-intervention. Mixed effect, repeated measure ANOVAS will be used to analyze intervention-induced change.
This study will evaluate the long-term safety, tolerability, and durability of treatment effect of ALKS 3831 in subjects with schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, or bipolar I disorder
Although psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia usually present in late adolescence or early adulthood, research suggests that a substantial subset of people are diagnosed for the first time after the age of 60. This condition is referred to as 'very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis' (VLOSLP). People with VLOSLP are thought to experience high levels of social isolation, yet there has been little research systematically examining this. Additionally, little is known about how lonely people with VLOSLP feel, or how this group relate to and perceive other people. This study aims to examine levels of social isolation and loneliness in patients with VLOSLP. The investigators also aim to explore aspects of social cognition in relation to VLOSLP. A case-control study design will be used to examine the relationship between VLOSLP, loneliness, social isolation and social cognition. The case group will be people diagnosed with a non-organic psychotic disorder after age 60. The comparison group will be those aged 60 and above in contact with mental health services for a mental health difficulty, except from a psychotic disorder or dementia.
Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are associated with high risk for suicide, yet there are few brief interventions that directly target suicide prevention in this large population. The goal of this intervention development study is to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a brief intervention called SafeTy and Recovery Therapy (START) that is augmented with content delivered on mobile devices outside of the clinic setting. The intervention will evaluated in a community urgent care center context as people initiate outpatient care, and, if effective, could be deployed in a wide network of such centers.
To determine the safety & efficacy of brexpiprazole monotherapy in the treatment of adolescents with schizophrenia.