Treatment Development Targeting Severe and Persistent Negative Symptoms

People with schizophrenia often have problems with negative symptoms; expressing and identifying their emotions, their amount of speech, motivation and interests, feelings of purpose, social skills, and experiencing enjoyment. For this reason, new interventions are being developed to treat these problems. One new intervention is the Motivation and Engagement (MOVE) Program. The MOVE program is a new program which consists of weekly meetings for 9 months between a patient and a trainer. The weekly meetings will consist of goal setting and organization of the home to make daily tasks more manageable. During the weekly meetings the patient and trainer will discuss emotions and the trainer will help the patient identify their emotions.

The researchers hope to learn whether MOVE will help improve the problems. If it works the researchers will do a larger study comparing MOVE to other treatments that have addressed some of the problems already.

The therapist will ask you if the sessions can be audio taped to ensure that the therapist is doing a helpful job for you. They will also ask if the session can be video taped so that the tapes can be used to train other therapists learning about MOVE. The choice to do either of these is voluntary and you can continue to participate in the study if you choose not to have the session be audio and/or video taped.You will be provided a University Release document to provide that permission if you so choose.

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Key information

Conditions

Schizophrenia Mental Disorders Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders

Age range

18 year–60 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

The Center for Health Care Services

San Antonio, Texas, 78201, United States

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

Male or female between the 18-60 who meet DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia confirmed by the Structured Clinical Interview Diagnosis (SCID-P version). Outpatient status.
Receiving treatment with antipsychotic medication
Clinically stable for a minimum of 5 months prior to screening (no significant changes in schizophrenia symptomatology, depressive symptoms, or community functioning, no hospitalizations, emergency visits or incarceration due to symptoms of schizophrenia or depression, no medication increases due to symptom exacerbation)
Has clinically meaningful negative symptoms as indicted by a score of 4 or higher on at least 2 of 6 of the following symptom domains as rated by the NSA-16; restricted affect, diminished emotional range, poverty of speech, curbing of interest, diminished sense of purpose, and diminished social drive
No more than moderate positive symptoms as indicated by a score of 5 or lower on BPRS-E items measuring delusions and hallucinations and no more than a 4 or higher on conceptual disorganization
No more than mild depression as indicated by a score of 3 or lower on the BPRS
No significant movement disorder as indicated by a score of 3 or lower on the ESRS-A
Able to provide evidence of a stable living environment (individual apartment, family home, board and care facility with no plans to move in the next year)

Exclusion criteria

History of significant head trauma
History of a seizure disorder
Mental Retardation
Alcohol or drug abuse or dependence within the past 3 months
History of violence in the past one year

Treatment and study plan

MOVE

Behavioral

MOVE Program group: MOVE consists of medication follow-up at the CHCS or ATCMHMR and meeting once a week for 9 months with a MOVE trainer in your home. You and your trainer will work on interviews for the first three visits that will talk about negative symptoms, thoughts, attitudes, and social skills that will help each of you develop goals together. Activities will be developed around improving initiation, enjoyment, success and outcome. These activities will be customized to you and will change based on your needs weekly throughout the 9 months

Primary outcomes

Changes in Negative Symptoms

Time frame: 9 months after treatment

During these times an assessor will ask questions regarding negative symptoms

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Other

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Registry information

Acronym: MOVE

Important dates

Study start: 2011
Primary completion: 2014
Study completion: 2015
First posted: Mar 12, 2012
Registry last updated: Jan 12, 2016

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.

Completed