NCT02484521

Prepulse Inhibition (PPI) of Startle Reflex in Schizophrenia Patients Related to Type of Treatment and Illness Duration

Characteristics of Prepulse Inhibition (PPI) of Startle Reflex in Patients With Schizophrenia in Relation to Type of Pharmacological Treatment and Duration of Illness

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 31 (actual)
• Sponsor: HaEmek Medical Center, Israel · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 90 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

PPI is an objective measure to assess pre-attentive processes that have already been tested before in the case of schizophrenia. The investigators aim to assess through this instrument two main characteristics, that the investigators assume are of relevance which are the duration of illness and the type of pharmaceutical treatment, patients receive. The investigators believe these two main characteristics are critical to the ability of the patients in improvement of their PPI response to startle reflex.

Detailed description

It is common to relate changes of PPI to startle reflex to both negative and positive signs of schizophrenia. Results can both start to explain formations of delusions and hallucinations and the difficulty in processing information for surrounding. It was already tested and discussed in previous trials the relation between type of pharmaceutical treatment as affecting on PPI to startle reflex both causing changes, or improving previous results. In previous trials as opposed to our planned trial, not much attention was paid for the relation on the changes found to the type of treatment and the duration of the illness. Plus, most trails had different methods of assessing it than our method. The investigators assume that patients who are receiving typical antipsychotic treatment would have a reduced PPI response to startle reflex compared with those with atypical antipsychotic treatment and those with longer duration of illness would also have reduced PPI response to startle reflex in comparison to those with shorted duration of illness. The investigators aim to enroll patients already diagnosed with schizophrenia that would be sent by their psychiatrist to the trial. In addition the investigators would enroll control group, not diagnosed with any psychiatric condition. For both groups, the investigators would run PPI trials according to a unified protocol. In addition the investigators would run several questionnaires for the group of the patients. Among the details asked of the patient are the duration of the illness and the type of antipsychotic medications they are on and the dosage. Data will then be analyzed.

Conditions

• Inhibition (Psychology)
• Schizophrenia
• Medication Adherence

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	PPI monitoring device protocol	The investigators would use a monitoring device that would assess startle reflex reaction measured by blinking or the eye. Monitoring would be done with electrodes of EMG device that would be located on orbicularis oculi muscle and will monitor response.
OTHER	Questionnaires	Group of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia would be interviewed using well validated questionnaires. Questionnaires what would be used are: 1. GAF- Global assessment of functioning 2. PANSS- Positive and negative syndrome scale 3. SANS- Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms 4. The Calgary Depression Scale for schizophrenia 5. Demographic Questionnaire 6. Hamilton Anxiety scale

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-06-01
• Primary completion: 2019-06-01
• Completion: 2019-06-01
• First posted: 2015-06-29
• Last updated: 2020-02-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Israel