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63 active trials for Psychosis

The Norwegian Prednisolone in Early Psychosis Study

Objective: The primary objective of this trial is to investigate whether prednisolone improves symptom severity as compared to placebo when given in addition to antipsychotic medication to patients with early-stage psychotic disorder. Secondary objectives include improvement of cognitive functioning and positive, negative and general psychopathological symptoms as well as general functioning. Study design: Randomized placebo-controlled double-blind trial. Study population: 90 men and women, with an age of 18 years and older, diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder. The time interval between the onset of psychosis and study entry should not exceed five years and CRP level should be at least 3.9 mg/L. Intervention: Patients will be randomized 1:1 to either prednisolone or placebo daily for a period of 6 weeks. Identical tablets will be administered. Prednisolone will be initiated at 40 mg for three days, after which it will be phased out within 6 weeks after start, following current treatment guidelines. Main study parameters/endpoints: Primary outcome is change in symptom severity, expressed as a change in total score on the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) from baseline to end of the 6-week treatment. Secondary outcomes are a 6-month follow-up assessment of PANSS, cognitive functioning (measured through a repeatable neurocognitive battery, change in GAF scores and the measurement of various immunological biomarkers. In post-hoc analyses, attempts will be made to identify baseline blood markers with predictive properties regarding improvement in the anti-inflammatory drug treatment arm. Expected benefits for consumers and care givers: A decrease in symptom severity is expected, as low grade brain inflammation may be associated with psychotic symptoms. The results may give raise to a new line of scientific research as well as treatment options for a disabling disorder.

Start: February 2018
Clozapine Versus Olanzapine as Treatment for Comorbid Psychotic Disorder and Substance Use Disorder

The purpose of this trial is to determine if patients with comorbid psychotic disorder and substance use disorder will continue in treatment longer if treated with clozapine than with olanzapine, and will have greater reductions in psychosis and in substance use if treated with clozapine than treated with olanzapine. The specific aims and hypotheses of this trial are: 1. To compare the enduring effectiveness and tolerability of clozapine and olanzapine, as measured by time to all-cause treatment discontinuation, over 12 weeks of follow-up; The investigators hypothesize that patients assigned to clozapine treatment will have significantly longer times to all cause treatment discontinuation, 2. To compare the total psychosis items scores between patients treated with clozapine and patients treated with olanzapine over 12 weeks of follow-up; The investigators hypothesize that patients treated with clozapine will have significantly lower total psychosis items scores than patients treated with olanzapine, and 3. To compare the frequencies of positive urine drug screens and blood alcohol levels (obtained weekly throughout 12 weeks of follow-up) between patients treated with clozapine and patients treated with olanzapine; The investigators hypothesize that patients treated with clozapine will have significantly fewer positive urine drug screens and blood alcohol levels than patients treated with olanzapine.

Start: July 2020
On Track Chile For First Episode Psychosis

Substantial data support early interventions for people experiencing First Episode Psychosis (FEP) to ameliorate symptoms and minimize disability. FEP programs have been widely and successfully implemented in high-income countries. With the partial exception of Chile, however, there is not a single low-and-middle-income country (LMIC) that offers universal access to FEP services. Chile is unique among LMICs in having created a platform for the implementation of FEP services, including 1) an FEP policy that mandates identification of FEP individuals at primary care and delivery of community-based FEP treatments at outpatient mental health clinics, and 2) a public health care system within which this mandate can be fulfilled. Nonetheless, previous research has documented that FEP services provided at mental health clinics do not conform to recently established evidence-based approaches. Therefore, the overarching goal of this proposal is to address the shortfall in evidence-based practices for FEP in Chile by first adapting OnTrackChile (OTCH) from OnTrackNY (OTNY), a coordinated specialty care program for FEP currently being implemented across the US, and then implementing OTCH on a wide scale. Like most FEP programs, OTNY is clinically effective, but unlike most others, it also has a well-established training and technical assistance infrastructure, and a proven track record of being scaled up in large urban areas. To achieve this goal, the Dynamic Adaptation Process will be used to first inform the adaptation and implementation of OTCH in the Chilean context. Then, a Hybrid Trial design will be employed to evaluate the implementation of OTCH as well as its effectiveness and cost in a cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) (N = 300 from 21 outpatient clinics). The OnTrackChile program will be offered in half of these outpatient clinics; usual care services will continue to be offered at the other clinics. Study participants (ages 15 to 35) attending an outpatient clinic assigned to the intervention arm will receive the OTCH coordinated services provided by an interdisciplinary team, based on the interests, needs, and preferences of each study participant. Study participants attending outpatient clinics assigned to "usual care" will receive the usual services offered to people with a wide range of mental health conditions, not just those experiencing first-episode psychosis. The study will engage participants over the course of two years, with interviews to evaluate their experiences at the beginning of their participation, and again after 12 months and 24 months. Over the course of the study, 4-5 mental health providers will also be interviewed at each of the participating clinics (up to 105 additional interviews at the three timepoints). The data collected in this study will help researchers evaluate the effectiveness and cost of FEP treatments based in outpatient clinics and factors which may help or hinder these outcomes.

Start: January 2020
Early Psychosis Intervention - Spreading Evidence-based Treatment

Implementation of 'NAVIGATE' in Ontario aims to help youth and emerging adults suffering from a first episode of psychosis. Although Ontario already has early psychosis intervention programs, the team's recent work has identified major challenges of delivering coordinated care, particularly those elements of care that enhance recovery. These challenges also exist nationally and internationally. By building on the already existing early psychosis intervention community of practice through the Early Psychosis Intervention Ontario Network, the investigators will implement NAVIGATE with the help of CAMH's Provincial System Support Program facilitators. The use of tele-videoconferencing through ECHO Mental Health Ontario and ECHO processes and protocols provide us with an opportunity to ensure sustainability. Using health administrative data held at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), the investigators can examine system-level outcomes, including hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and outpatient physician visits of youth and emerging adults suffering from a first episode psychosis who are treated with NAVIGATE compared with those treated in early psychosis intervention programs without NAVIGATE and those who are not treated in early psychosis intervention programs. In addition, the investigators can also evaluate health care costs. Prior to initiating this project, the investigators obtained the input of youth and emerging adults with a first episode psychosis and family members. The investigators will also continue to measure engagement across the study. Hypotheses: Following the implementation of NAVIGATE, program fidelity (i.e. adaptability) to the Ontario early psychosis intervention standard will improve. Compared to patients not receiving NAVIGATE, those who receive NAVIGATE through this implementation study will have fewer days in hospital, fewer emergency department visits, fewer suicide attempts, lower mortality, and lower healthcare costs. Improvements in functioning and symptoms will be comparable to the RAISE study (an earlier study assessing NAVIGATE); improvement may be influenced by demographic, socio-economic, geographic, and clinical factors. The project's engagement approach will demonstrate that the investigators used the full range of patient engagement based on objectively assessed engagement metrics.

Start: January 2020
Efficacy of Social Cognitive Training (SCT) in Recent-onset Psychosis

Participants with recent onset psychosis (ROP) experience delusions, hallucinations, and impairment in social, cognitive and emotional functioning. Although symptoms often improve following pharmacological intervention, the marked cognitive deficits, that often precede the onset of symptoms, continue to persist despite current treatment methods. Computerized neurocognitive interventions (NCI) are a promising therapeutic approach in participants with chronic schizophrenia and individuals at risk for psychosis. Specifically, focus has shifted to social cognitive training (SCT) as treating social cognition have been shown to provide improvements not only in general cognitive deficits but is also related to improvements in functional outcome (occupational and social). NCIs include non-invasive computerized tasks that are done on a tablet. This intervention can be conducted in a clinical setting, as well as out of the comfort of one's home. Additionally, research has shown that NCIs have the potential to elicit neuroplastic effects on the brain. The purpose of this study is to explore the efficacy of a 10-hour SCT in improving the primary outcome measure, global cognition, and secondary outcome measure, global functioning, in ROP participants. It is hypothesized that participants receiving the intervention will show gains in global cognition, as well as the subdomains of social cognition, processing speed, and working memory. Additionally, participants undergoing active intervention are expected to show gains in functional connectivity primarily between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala and other brain areas, that are engaged in social cognition. Furthermore, machine learning approach will be used(support vector classification) to investigate how the decision scores of the resting state classifier, indicating health vs. disease proneness, change in response to the training. In this randomized controlled trial, participants with a ROP receive a 4-6-week treatment with 10 hours of SCT, with 30-minute sessions 4-5 times per week or treatment as usual (TAU) control condition. Baseline and follow-up (6 weeks after the baseline assessment) assessments include clinical diagnostic and symptom assessment, standard neuropsychological testing, and structural and functional imaging. The already recruited part of the ROP sample counts 27 participants in SCT and 27 in the TAU arm. The power analysis recommends to recruit at least 6 more participants in both study arms. For the purpose of machine learning part of the analysis an independent psychosis (ROP)-healthy population (HC) classifier will be used, which takes the data from the naturalistic multi-center european study, Personalized Prognostic Tools for Early Psychosis Management, in order to be able to track the decision scores of the intervention SCT sample without risk of overfitting.

Start: May 2016
Shared Decision Making in Psychiatric Inpatient Care

Introduction National guidelines and The Patient Act from 2014 call for an active role for the patient in the decision making process. The role of the doctor is not only to give advice and to prescribe treatments, but also to present different alternatives with pros and cons. The method of Shared Decision Making (SDM) is meant to improve patient participation in line with ethical guidelines and legal demands. In summary, SDM consists of three steps: To introduce a choice. To discuss the options. To make a shared decision. Systematic studies on SDM show patients becoming better informed and less uncertain regarding decisions made, and decisions closer to clinical guidelines compared to treatment as usual (TAU). It is still unresolved if SDM leads to improved clinical outcomes. Aim The aim of the study is to investigate outcomes of SDM carried out in psychiatric inpatient care: the patients' perceived participation (primary outcome) and health related outcomes (secondary). Method The decision situation in focus for this project is the planning of hospital discharge and future outpatient care. The participants are randomized to either SDM or TAU. Patient participation will be measured by questionnaires, interviews with patients and recorded decision talks. Clinical outcomes will be measured 12 months after discharge. Preliminary results A pilot study conducted in 2017-2018 clarified the feasibility of instruments and the intervention, and gave data for power estimation.

Start: December 2019
VR Therapy for Psychosis Negative Symptoms (V-NeST)

Background: Negative symptoms are typically observed in people with schizophrenia and indicate a loss or reduction of a normal function (e.g. reduced motivation and affect display). Despite being important predictors of people's recovery the development of interventions for negative symptoms received only very limited attention. There are currently no evidenced based therapies for these symptoms. Aims: To test the feasibility and acceptability of a novel virtual reality assisted therapy, called Virtual Reality Supported Therapy for the Negative Symptoms of Psychosis (V-NeST). Methods: This is a single (rater) blind randomised study with two conditions; V-NeST plus treatment-as-usual (TAU) vs. TAU alone. The study will recruit people with psychosis from NHS community care teams (in England). Assessments will be at baseline and 3-month post-randomisation. A nested qualitative study to identify the key themes associated with the acceptability of the overall study and intervention will be conducted. The study will assess key feasibility parameters such as: consent and availability for screening; eligibility; availability for assessment, randomisation and treatment retention. Acceptability will be assessed by considering: therapy session attendance and drop-out; in-depth feedback from service users interviews; acceptability of the research procedures and measures. Participants will be assessed with measures of functioning levels and, negative symptoms . Analyses will evaluate the feasibility and analyses of clinical outcomes will be focused on descriptive statistics and confidence intervals for treatment effects. Population variances of the main outcomes will be estimated for future power calculations. A semi-structured interview will explore participants' experience of being recruited to the study, receiving V-NeST and identify barriers (and potential solutions) to treatment engagement.

Start: October 2019