Emotional Response in Psychiatric and Control Participants

The purpose of this research is to understand how the emotions of people with different mental health concerns (e.g., people with schizophrenia, people with major depressive disorder) differ from individuals without mental health concerns. A large body of literature suggests that people with mental illnesses have emotional abnormalities compared to healthy individuals, but a number of these abnormalities are not well understood. For example, often people with schizophrenia report on questionnaires that they experience fewer pleasant emotions when talking with other people, but some evidence suggests these individuals report a similar amount of pleasant emotion when they are actually engaged in a pleasant activity. Thus, it is unclear the extent to which reports of emotional abnormalities extend to a more real-world setting. In the tasks in the current proposal, participants will engage in a series of tasks designed to assess their emotional functioning. These tasks involve viewing emotional stimuli on the computer, engaging in social interactions, and consuming small amounts of food. In all tasks, participants will make ratings of their experiences of pleasure (and displeasure). We will then compare the experiences of patient groups to those of healthy individuals to test how emotional ratings might differ across these tasks.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Schizophrenia; Emotions
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: social interaction; Behavioral: food consumption

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 46
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Irvine, California, United States, 92697-0001
      • Social Ecology 1

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• For control participants, you are eligible to participate in this study if you are between 18 and 65 years of age, you are fluent in English, and you have not been clinically diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder.
• For psychiatric patients, you are eligible to participate in this study if you are between 18 and 65 years of age, you are fluent in English, and you have been clinically diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or depression with no recent hospitalization or changes in your psychiatric medications.

Exclusion Criteria:

• For control participants, you are not eligible to participate in the study if you have a history of stroke or a current history of substance or alcohol dependence. You are also not eligible to participate in this study if you have had a diagnosis of substance abuse in the past three months. You are not eligible to participate if you have a current or past history of a major medical illness, significant tremors, a history of a head injury or prolonged unconsciousness.
• For psychiatric patients, you are not eligible to participate in the study if you have had major changes to your psychotropic medications within the last two months, have a history of stroke or a current history of substance or alcohol dependence. You are also not eligible to participate in this study if you have had a diagnosis of substance abuse in the past three months, a current or past history of a major medical illness, significant tremors, or a history of a head injury or prolonged unconsciousness.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: social interaction; Participants will engage in a social interaction with another person	Behavioral: social interaction; Participants will engage in a social interaction with another person
Experimental: food consumption; Participants will be offered food stuffs to eat/drink	Behavioral: food consumption; Participants will be offered food stuffs to eat/drink

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Social Anhedonia Scale	measures social anhedonia	1 day
Physical Anhedonia Scale	measures physical anhedonia	1 day
EEG activity	physiological parameter	1 day
Verbal behavioral rating	how many words are spoken throughout the task	1 day
Non-verbal behavioral rating	how many gestures are made throughout the task	1 day
International Personality Item Pool questionnaires	measure of personality	1 day

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Following Affective States test	questionnaire re: how much participants follow or ignore their emotions	1 day
AMNART	measure of verbal IQ	1 day
MMSE	measure of mental status	1 day

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of California, Irvine

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 15, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 3, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 14, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): February 17, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 14, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 12, 2018
• Last Verified: December 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2016-2945

Drug and device information, study documents

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