Sustained Attention Abilities in Schizophrenia (ACCRAS)

Sustained Attention Abilities, Attentional Resources and Cognitive Control Mechanisms in Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric pathology, which concerns around 1% of adult population. It is characterized by clinical symptoms combining positive and negative symptoms and thinking disorganization. Schizophrenia is also characterized by cognitive deficits, likely to play an important part in adaptation of these patients in their every-day life, and to affect their clinical symptomatology. Among them, there are deficits in sustained attention which are associated with a difficulty for these patients to maintain efficiently their cognitive activity on a source of stimulation or task. This basic attentional process is fundamental for the efficiency of the overall of cognitive processes, and so for all behaviors directed on an aim. The question of whether or not patients with schizophrenia have difficulty sustaining attention is of high relevance, in the sense that it could undermine performance on nearly any task and so provide a compelling causal explanation of many other impairments observed in these patients. Yet it has not been conclusively answered in over four decades of research. Consequently, the main objective of the protocol is to evaluate sustained attention abilities in schizophrenic patients and to better understand the specific functioning of cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying these abilities (attentional resources and cognitive control mechanisms).

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Schizophrenic Psychoses
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: measurements

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 80

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Dimitri Sanchez; Email: drci@chru-strasbourg.fr

Study Locations

• France
  • Strasbourg, France, 67000
    • Recruiting
    • Service de psychiatrie
    • Contact: Anne Giersch, MD; Email: anne.giersch@chru-strasbourg.fr

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 60 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

40 schizophrenic patients versus 40 healthy subjects matched

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• age between 18 and 60 years (include)
• men or women volunteers, hospitalized or not
• subject affiliated to an health insurance
• subject having signed an informed consent (for patients):
• presence of DSM-IV TR criteria for schizophrenia (American Psychiatric Association, 1994)

Exclusion criteria

• a major somatic disorder or non stabilized
• medical history likely to affect cerebral anatomy or to be linked to an abnormality (neonatal distress, neurochirurgical intervention, neurological disorders, stroke attack)
• any disorders involved in the use of a psycho-active substance (as defined by the DSM-IV)
• sensory disabling impairments, and specifically visual acuity < 8
• general anaesthesia during the 3 months before the study
• pregnancy (declared by the subject)
• persons in an emergency situation
• persons deprived in any way of their liberty
• persons in period of exclusion in an other protocol
• use of psychotropic substance during the 3 weeks before the study
• use of benzodiazepines

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
assessing attention span; Electrophysiological measurements (evocated potentials and spectral densities); Clinical scales and subjective assessments of difficulty of the tasks performed, and commitment to the task	Other: measurements; performance measurements

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Assess sustained attention span of patients with schizophrenia	Subjects are involved in 4 different attentional tasks during which behavioral and electrophysiological measures are recorded in order to evaluate sustained attention abilities and the specific functioning of cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying these abilities in schizophrenic patients.	two half-days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Study the specific mechanisms underlying attention skills supported in schizophrenic patients	Subjects are involved in 4 different attentional tasks during which behavioral and electrophysiological measures are recorded in order to evaluate sustained attention abilities and the specific functioning of cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying these abilities in schizophrenic patients.	two half-days

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Strasbourg, France
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Giersch Anne, MD, Les Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg; Study Chair: Bonnefond Anne, PHD, Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): March 1, 2023
• Study Completion (Anticipated): March 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 10, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 9, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): March 17, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 14, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 13, 2021
• Last Verified: September 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia
• Other Study ID Numbers: 5972

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No