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Schizophrenia clinical trials at UCSF

5 in progress, 4 open to eligible people

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects how a person thinks and behaves. UCSF is conducting a study to see if a special diet can help with the cognitive problems that come with this disorder. Another study is looking at how families can help those at risk of psychosis. We're also trying to understand the brain better with imaging studies.

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  • Can Neural Network Instability in Schizophrenia be Improved With a Very Low Carbohydrate Ketogenic Diet?

    open to eligible people ages 18-65

    Wide ranging cognitive deficits are major drivers of functional decline and poor outcomes in people with schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD). Medications do not target pathophysiological mechanisms thought to underlie these deficits. In the search for interventions targeting underlying cognitive impairment in SZ and BD, we look comprehensively beyond just the brain and to the potential role of dysfunctional systemic metabolism. Disrupted insulin and glucose metabolism are seen in medication-naïve first-episode SZ, suggesting that SZ itself, and not just the medications used to treat it, is associated with risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and more generally, accelerated aging. Even young people with SZ have increased risk of metabolic disease and cognitive deficits. Sadly, their life span is shortened by 15-20 years. BD is associated with similar but less severe disruptions in glucose and insulin metabolism and life expectancy. Although the human brain is 2% of the body's volume, it consumes over 20% of its energy, and accordingly, the brain is particularly vulnerable to the dysregulation of glucose metabolism seen in SZ and BD. While glucose is considered to be the brain's default fuel, ketones provide 27% more free energy and are a major source of energy for the brain. Ketones prevent or improve various age-associated diseases, and a ketogenic diet (70% fat, 20% protein, 10% carbohydrates) has been posited as an anti-aging and dementia antidote. The premise of the work is based on recent evidence that ketogenic diets improve dynamic neural network instability, related to cognitive deficits, aging, and Type 2 diabetes (Mujica-Parodi et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020;117(11):6170-7.). The rigor of the work rests on findings of (1) poor cerebral glucose homeostasis in SZ and BD, (2) neural network instability in SZ and BD, and (3) direct effects of ketosis on network instability. Unknown is whether ketogenic diets can improve network instability in people with SZ and BD.

    San Francisco, California

  • Family-Focused Therapy for Individuals at High Clinical Risk for Psychosis: A Confirmatory Efficacy Trial

    open to eligible people ages 13-25

    The present study is a confirmatory efficacy trial of Family Focused Therapy for youth at clinical high risk for psychosis (FFT-CHR). This trial is sponsored by seven mature CHR clinical research programs from the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study (NAPLS). The young clinical high risk sample (N = 220 youth ages 13-25) is to be followed at 6-month intervals for 18 months.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

  • Medial-prefrontal Enhancement During Schizophrenia Systems Imaging

    open to eligible people ages 18-64

    This randomized controlled trial in healthy controls (HC) and patients with schizophrenia (SZ) aims to examine 1) the underlying cognitive and neural cause of self-agency deficits in SZ; 2) the responsiveness to a novel navigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (nrTMS) target in the medial/superior prefrontal cortex (mPFC); and 3) how modulation of mPFC activity impacts the larger self-agency network to mediate changes in self-agency judgments. Our overall hypothesis is that increased mPFC excitability by active high-frequency nrTMS in HC and SZ will induce behavioral improvements in self-agency and neural changes in the larger self-agency network that will generalize to improvements in overall cognition, symptoms and daily functioning, and will likely lead to the development of new effective neuromodulation therapies in patients with schizophrenia.

    San Francisco, California

  • AMP SCZ® Observational Study: PREDICT-DPACC

    open to eligible people ages 12-30

    The Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia (AMP® SCZ) is a large international collaboration to develop algorithms using a set of clinical and cognitive assessments, multi-modal biomarkers, and clinical endpoints that can be used to predict the trajectories and outcomes of individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis and to advance the testing of pharmacological interventions for CHR individuals in need. The goal is to accurately predict which individuals are likely to remit, experience an acute psychotic episode, or have intermediate outcomes that feature persistent attenuated psychotic and/or mood symptoms along with functional impairment. The prediction algorithms will have the potential to serve as early indicators of treatment efficacy in CHR persons. The AMP SCZ research program is made up of the Psychosis Risk Evaluation, Data Integration, and Computational Technologies - Data Processing, Analysis and Coordination Center (PREDICT-DPACC) and two clinical research networks, the Psychosis-Risk Outcomes Network (ProNET) and the Trajectories and Predictors in the Clinical High Risk for Psychosis Population: Prediction Scientific Global Consortium (PRESCIENT) networks. The two clinical research networks will recruit a large cohort of CHR young people aged 12-30 years (n=1,977) and healthy control (HC) participants (n=640) across 42 participating investigative sites from 13 countries. CHR participants will complete screening, baseline assessments and a battery of follow-up assessments across 18 - 24 months. HC participants will complete screening and baseline assessments and a subset (5 per site) will complete month 2, 12 and 24 visits.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

  • Pharmaco-imaging Approach to Predicting Social Functioning and Clinical Responses to Oxytocin Administration in Schizophrenia

    Sorry, in progress, not accepting new patients

    Schizophrenia has a devastating and disproportionate effect on veterans compared to the general US population. Some of the most disabling symptoms, such as low motivation, difficulty expressing emotions, and decreased ability to infer the mental states of others, cause poor social functioning. This means that veterans with schizophrenia have trouble navigating interpersonal interactions and building meaningful relationships in the community. Unfortunately, current antipsychotic medications typically only improve positive symptoms but fail to improve social functioning deficits, which are strong predictors of poor quality of life and functional outcomes. Oxytocin, a peptide found in the brain, plays an important role in social behavior and is known to moderate affiliation, stress, and learning across taxa. In this study, the investigators will test whether oxytocin could be an effective treatment for social functioning deficits in schizophrenia. The investigators will examine changes in brain activation to understand how oxytocin affects behavior and to predict which individuals may benefit from oxytocin treatment.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

Our lead scientists for Schizophrenia research studies include .

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