Schizophrenia Related Disorders - Studies
Current Research Studies
The Family Study in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder focuses on identifying physiological and cognitive markers of schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder liability. The study examines physiological and neuropsychological differences in people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and their healthy family members – and compares those results with individuals who do not have psychotic illnesses and their family members. Individuals and their family members are asked to participate in clinical interviews, as well as in eye movement and other physiological and neuropsychological tests. These measures are used in patients and their family members to identify subtle physiological deficits in psychoses, and to assess whether those deficits run in the family. We plan to identify independent deficits that mark different aspects of disease liability. Our ultimate goal is to use these subtle physiological deficits in genetic studies to identify individual genes that contribute to the development of these illnesses.
The fMRI Study of Nicotinic Effect on Neurophysiology of Schizophrenia focuses on examining how nicotine affects brain functions in people with schizophrenia as compared to people without schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia smoke much more often than the general population, and we want to learn how nicotine works differently in people with schizophrenia. This study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in combination with double-blind, cross-over administration of nicotine and placebo patches to identify specific brain regions involved in the anticipatory learning deficits we observe in schizophrenia patients who smoke, and to determine how nicotine affects performance on certain eye-tracking and sustained attention tasks.
Varenicline Adjunctive Treatment in Schizophrenia is one of the newer studies to begin at the SRD. Varenicline (or Chantix) is a drug that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for smoking cessation, and we are looking to examine what effects, if any, Chantix has when added to a patient’s existing psychotropic medication regimen. The study’s main focus is to evaluate the efficacy of Chantix on patients’ neurobiological and cognitive functioning, daily functioning, and primary negative symptoms. This is a double-blind, placebo controlled, eight-week drug trial. Patients who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or schizophreniform disorder, will be randomly assigned to receive either the Chantix drug, or placebo, and will be monitored throughout the course of the study. In addition, the patients will complete clinical monitoring, clinical interviews, and laboratory testing. Our aim is to gain a better understanding of the disorder, and its symptoms, in hopes of improving the existing treatments for patients with schizophrenia.
Many patients with Schizophrenia, and some of their relatives, have difficulty following a moving object with their eyes or have trouble making decisions about how fast an object is moving. The goal of the Motion Processing in Schizophrenia study is to help us understand why these problems occur. The study examines eye movement in patients with schizophrenia, 1st degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia who show other evidence of schizophrenia liability, and community subjects with no family history of psychotic illness. The focus of the study is to evaluate components of motion perception, and it’s use in smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM). Smooth pursuit deficit has been identified as a relevant endophenotype in Schizophrenia. Progress has been made in the study of the SPEM phenotype including preliminary linkage of SPEM deficits in families of schizophrenia probands to a chromosome 6q location. However, continued work in this area requires a better understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this phenotype, which is the primary goal of this study. Results from the aforementioned study will be incorporated into ongoing genetic, pharmacological, and imaging studies of schizophrenia in our lab. Knowledge of the biological mechanisms underlying the SPEM phenotype will enhance studies of the functional significance of any candidate genes that are identified, and will have important implications for identifying new treatment targets and developing early intervention strategies.
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