Understanding Lifespan Trajectories of Social Cognition, Brain Microstructure and Iron Dysregulation in Schizophrenia
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:
- people diagnosed with schizophrenia
- 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:
- Baseline: at the beginning of the study
- 12-month follow-up: approximately one year later
- 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.
Panoramica dello studio
Stato
Stato
Condizioni
Condizioni
Tipo di studio
Tipo di studio
Iscrizione (Stimato)
Iscrizione
Contatti e Sedi
Contatto studio
Contatto studio
- Nome: Christopher Schaar, M.Sc.
- Numero di telefono: 0043 512 9003 81298
- Email: christopher.schaar@i-med.ac.at
Luoghi di studio
-
-
Tyrol
-
Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria, 6020
- Reclutamento
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Medical Psychology; Medical University of Innsbruck
-
Contatto:
- Alexandra Schlögl
- Numero di telefono: 0043 50 504 23669
- Email: alexandra.schloegl@tirol-kliniken.at
-
-
Criteri di partecipazione
Criteri di ammissibilità
Criteri di ammissibilità
Età idonea allo studio
Accetta volontari sani
Sessi ammissibili allo studio
Metodo di campionamento
Popolazione di studio
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.
Descrizione
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.
Piano di studio
Come è strutturato lo studio?
Dettagli di progettazione
- Modelli osservazionali: COHORT
- Prospettive temporali: PROSPECTIVE
Numero di gruppi/coorti
Coorti e interventi
Gruppo / CoorteGruppo / Coorte |
|---|
|
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 |
Cosa sta misurando lo studio?
Misure di risultato primarie
Misure di risultato primarie
Misura del risultato |
Misura Descrizione |
Lasso di tempo |
|---|---|---|
|
Change in Theory of Mind performance
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
|
Misure di risultato secondarie
Misure di risultato secondarie
Misura del risultato |
Misura Descrizione |
Lasso di tempo |
|---|---|---|
|
Change in reflective functioning
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
Lasso di tempo: 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
|
Collaboratori e investigatori
Sponsor
Sponsor
Collaboratori
Collaboratori
Studiare le date dei record
Studia le date principali
Inizio studio (Effettivo)
Inizio studio
Completamento primario (Stimato)
Completamento primario
Completamento dello studio (Stimato)
Completamento dello studio
Date di iscrizione allo studio
Primo inviato
Primo inviato
Primo inviato che soddisfa i criteri di controllo qualità
Primo inviato che soddisfa i criteri di controllo qualità
Primo Inserito (Effettivo)
Primo Inserito
Aggiornamenti dei record di studio
Ultimo aggiornamento pubblicato (Effettivo)
Ultimo aggiornamento pubblicato
Ultimo aggiornamento inviato che soddisfa i criteri QC
Ultimo aggiornamento inviato che soddisfa i criteri QC
Ultimo verificato
Ultimo verificato
Maggiori informazioni
Termini relativi a questo studio
Parole chiave
- schizofrenia
- cognizione sociale
- Studi longitudinali
- Risonanza magnetica
- Lo stress ossidativo
- Regolazione delle emozioni
- risultato funzionale
- Disfunzione cognitiva
- Glutatione
- Sintomi negativi
- Funzionamento psicosociale
- Vescicole extracellulari
- Teoria della mente
- Riconoscimento delle emozioni
- Mappatura quantitativa della suscettibilità
- Brain iron
- accelerated longitudinal design
- age trajectory
- lifespan
- Redox Regulation
- Hair Proteomics
- Attributional Style
- NDEV
Termini MeSH pertinenti aggiuntivi
Altri numeri di identificazione dello studio
Altri numeri di identificazione dello studio
- SilverMinds
Piano per i dati dei singoli partecipanti (IPD)
Hai intenzione di condividere i dati dei singoli partecipanti (IPD)?
Informazioni su farmaci e dispositivi, documenti di studio
Studia un prodotto farmaceutico regolamentato dalla FDA degli Stati Uniti
Studia un dispositivo regolamentato dalla FDA degli Stati Uniti
Queste informazioni sono state recuperate direttamente dal sito web clinicaltrials.gov senza alcuna modifica. In caso di richieste di modifica, rimozione o aggiornamento dei dettagli dello studio, contattare register@clinicaltrials.gov. Non appena verrà implementata una modifica su clinicaltrials.gov, questa verrà aggiornata automaticamente anche sul nostro sito web .