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Understanding Lifespan Trajectories of Social Cognition, Brain Microstructure and Iron Dysregulation in Schizophrenia

23. září 2026 aktualizováno: Beatrice Frajo-Apor, Medical University Innsbruck

SilverMinds - Lifespan Trajectories of Social Cognition and Iron Dysregulation in Schizophrenia

This study aims to better understand how schizophrenia may affect social thinking, emotion regulation, brain function, and biological processes over time.

Two groups will take part in the study:

  1. people diagnosed with schizophrenia
  2. healthy adults without schizophrenia

Participants in both groups will complete a series of behavioral tasks and questionnaires. These will assess abilities such as understanding other people, processing social information, and regulating emotions. For participants with schizophrenia, we will also assess clinical symptoms and their severity.

The study includes three assessment visits:

  1. Baseline: at the beginning of the study
  2. 12-month follow-up: approximately one year later
  3. 24-month follow-up: approximately two years later

At all three visits, participants will complete behavioral tests and questionnaires, and blood and hair samples will be collected. These samples may help researchers investigate biological factors that are related to mental health, stress, and changes over time.

Participants will also undergo an MRI brain scan at the baseline visit and again at the 12-month follow-up.

People with schizophrenia may experience changes in thinking, emotions, social functioning, physical health, and brain function across adulthood. However, we still do not fully understand how these changes develop over time or how they differ from normal aging.

By comparing people with schizophrenia with healthy adults of different ages and following them over time, we can study possible differences in aging trajectories. This means examining whether certain abilities, symptoms, biological markers, or brain characteristics change differently with age in people with schizophrenia.

The study uses an accelerated longitudinal design. Instead of following one group of people for many decades, researchers recruit participants from different age groups and follow them for a shorter period. Combining information across these age groups can help researchers estimate longer-term patterns of change.

Přehled studie

Postavení

Nábor

Podmínky

Typ studie

Pozorovací

Zápis (Odhadovaný)

180

Kontakty a umístění

Tato část poskytuje kontaktní údaje pro ty, kteří studii provádějí, a informace o tom, kde se tato studie provádí.

Studijní kontakt

Studijní místa

  • Rakousko
    • Tyrol
      • Innsbruck, Tyrol, Rakousko, 6020
        • Nábor
        • Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Medical Psychology; Medical University of Innsbruck
        • Kontakt:

Kritéria účasti

Výzkumníci hledají lidi, kteří odpovídají určitému popisu, kterému se říká kritéria způsobilosti. Některé příklady těchto kritérií jsou celkový zdravotní stav osoby nebo předchozí léčba.

Kritéria způsobilosti

Věk způsobilý ke studiu

18 let až 70 let (Dospělý, Starší dospělý)

Přijímá zdravé dobrovolníky

Ano

Pohlaví způsobilá ke studiu

Všechno

Metoda odběru vzorků

Vzorek nepravděpodobnosti

Studijní populace

Participants with SZ will be recruited through multiple clinical pathways to ensure adequate sample size and representativeness across the adult lifespan. The primary recruitment source is the specialized outpatient clinic for SZ spectrum disorders at the Department of Psychiatry, MUI, which serves a large catchment area and maintains detailed diagnostic records. Additional participants will be recruited through a collaborating psychiatric hospital and office-based psychiatrists and psychosocial service providers in the region, with whom the Dep. of Psychiatry maintains established referral networks. Patients in the SZ group must have a DSM-5 diagnosis of schizophrenia confirmed by their treating psychiatrist. HC participants will be recruited through advertisements in online platforms, social media, and community outreach.

Popis

Inclusion criteria (all participants):

age 18-70 years at baseline; normal or corrected-to-normal vision; sufficient hearing; fluency in German; willingness and ability to understand and comply with study procedures. Participants must either be healthy adults without any mental health disorder (HC) or have a confirmed DSM-5 diagnosis of SZ.

Inclusion criteria (SZ only):

clinical stability at assessment, defined as no clinically significant change in psychopathological symptoms and no modification of pharmacotherapy for at least three months prior to study entry, as confirmed by the treating psychiatrist; full remission is not required.

Exclusion criteria (all participants):

incapacity to consent; current or lifetime history of brain surgery or epilepsy; MRI contraindications (unremovable metal parts in the upper body, active implants, claustrophobia); current or past substance abuse disorder (excluding caffeine and nicotine); pregnancy.

Exclusion criteria (HC only):

any current or lifetime Axis I psychiatric disorder; first-degree relative with an Axis I disorder; any neurological disorder or other mental health condition; current or past use of psychotropic medication.

Additional Eligibility Criteria for Cycle-Timed Neuroimaging:

To minimize hormonal confounding of emotion-regulation-related neural measures, menstruating female participants will be scanned in the early follicular phase (cycle days 1-6), requiring regular menstrual cycles (21-35 days) and a negative pregnancy test at relevant visits.

Use of hormonal contraception will be recorded.

Studijní plán

Tato část poskytuje podrobnosti o studijním plánu, včetně toho, jak je studie navržena a co studie měří.

Jak je studie koncipována?

Detaily designu

  • Observační modely: COHORT
  • Časové perspektivy: PROSPECTIVE

Kohorty a intervence

Skupina / kohorta
Schizophrenia Group

Group of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia confirmed by their treating psychiatrist.
Healthy control group

Group absent of any Axis-I Diagnosis

Co je měření studie?

Primární výstupní opatření

Měření výsledku
Popis opatření
Časové okno
Change in Theory of Mind performance
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Theory of Mind will be assessed using the EmpaToM task. The outcome will include performance-based indices of cognitive and affective Theory of Mind. Higher scores indicate better ability to infer and understand the mental states of others.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months
Change in attributional style
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Attributional style will be assessed using the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire-Revised. The outcome will measure tendencies to attribute positive and negative social events to internal, personal-external, or situational-external causes; aswell as monocausal-inference-style.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months
Change in emotion recognition performance
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Emotion recognition will be assessed using the DiagnosIS Emotion Recognition Task. The outcome will measure accuracy in identifying facial emotional expressions. Higher scores indicate better emotion recognition performance.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months
Change in Emotion Regulation Choice
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, 24 months

The Emotion Regulation Choice Task is a behavioral paradigm used to examines whether individuals adapt their choice of emotion regulation strategy according to the intensity of negative emotional stimuli.

It will be used to assess the change in the degree to which strategy choice changes as a function of emotional intensity.
Baseline, 12 months, 24 months

Sekundární výstupní opatření

Měření výsledku
Popis opatření
Časové okno
Change in reflective functioning
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Reflective functioning will be assessed using the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire. The outcome will measure certainty and uncertainty about mental states. Scores will be analyzed according to the scoring rules of the instrument.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months
Change in self reported Emotion Regulation
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, 24 months

Self reported emotion regulation will be assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). The ERQ is a 10-item self-report measure assessing the habitual use of two emotion-regulation strategies: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression.
Baseline, 12 months, 24 months
Change in global cognitive functioning
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Global cognition will be assessed using the Screen for Cognitive Impairment in Psychiatry. The outcome will provide a standardized measure of cognitive functioning across domains including verbal learning, working memory, verbal fluency, and processing speed. Higher scores indicate better cognitive performance.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months
Change in daily functioning and disability
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Daily functioning and disability will be assessed using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. The outcome will measure functioning across cognition, mobility, self-care, interpersonal relationships, life activities, and participation in society. Higher scores indicate greater disability.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months
Change in brain iron distribution measured by quantitative susceptibility mapping
Časové okno: Baseline and 12 months

Brain iron distribution will be assessed using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) derived from multi-echo gradient echo MRI.
Baseline and 12 months
Change in R2* relaxometry measures of brain iron-sensitive signal
Časové okno: Baseline and 12 months

R2* values will be derived from multi-echo gradient echo MRI as an iron-sensitive neuroimaging measure.
Baseline and 12 months
Change in white matter microstructure
Časové okno: Baseline and 12 months

White matter microstructure will be assessed using diffusion-weighted MRI. Outcomes will include fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, radial diffusivity, and axial diffusivity.
Baseline and 12 months
Change in resting-state functional connectivity
Časové okno: Baseline and 12 months

Resting-state functional connectivity will be assessed using resting-state functional MRI.
Baseline and 12 months
Change in extracellular vesicle-derived redox markers
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Neuronally derived extracellular vesicles will be isolated from plasma samples.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months
Change in hair proteomic signatures
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Hair samples will be analyzed using untargeted proteomic profiling. Outcomes will include proteomic signature related to oxidative stress, antioxidant defense, inflammation, mitochondrial bioenergetics, systemic stress, and biological aging.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months
Change in hair cortisol concentration
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Hair cortisol concentration will be measured from scalp hair samples as an index of cumulative hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity over the preceding months. Higher values indicate higher cumulative cortisol exposure.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months
Change in psychopathological symptom severity
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Psychopathological symptoms in participants with schizophrenia will be assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. The outcome will include total and subscale scores for positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and general psychopathology. Higher scores indicate greater symptom severity.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months
Change in negative symptom severity
Časové okno: Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Negative symptoms will be assessed using the Brief Negative Symptom Scale. The outcome will measure negative symptom domains including anhedonia, asociality, avolition, blunted affect, and alogia. Higher scores indicate greater negative symptom severity.
Baseline, 12 months, and 24 months

Spolupracovníci a vyšetřovatelé

Zde najdete lidi a organizace zapojené do této studie.

Sponzor

Medical University Innsbruck

Spolupracovníci

Technische Universität Dresden
University of Innsbruck, Austria

Termíny studijních záznamů

Tato data sledují průběh záznamů studie a předkládání souhrnných výsledků na ClinicalTrials.gov. Záznamy ze studií a hlášené výsledky jsou před zveřejněním na veřejné webové stránce přezkoumány Národní lékařskou knihovnou (NLM), aby se ujistily, že splňují specifické standardy kontroly kvality.

Hlavní termíny studia

Začátek studia (Aktuální)

1. září 2026

Primární dokončení (Odhadovaný)

1. září 2030

Dokončení studie (Odhadovaný)

30. září 2030

Termíny zápisu do studia

První předloženo

23. září 2026

První předloženo, které splnilo kritéria kontroly kvality

23. září 2026

První zveřejněno (Aktuální)

2. října 2026

Aktualizace studijních záznamů

Poslední zveřejněná aktualizace (Aktuální)

2. října 2026

Odeslaná poslední aktualizace, která splnila kritéria kontroly kvality

23. září 2026

Naposledy ověřeno

1. září 2026

Více informací

Termíny související s touto studií

Klíčová slova

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