That is the title of this article I am writing about. "Results of a clinical trial seem to show the first effective treatment for the negative symptoms--withdrawal, lack of emotion, and apathy--associated with schizophrenia. This work is presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference in Amsterdam. Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious mental health conditions, with around 1 in 100 people experiencing schizophrenia in their lifetime. The main symptoms fall into 3 categories: positive symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations; negative symptoms, such as lack of drive and social withdrawal; and cognitive symptoms, such as problems with attention and memory. The negative symptoms tend to persist, and don't respond well to current treatment. Effective medicines (antipsychotics) exist for positive symptoms, but negative symptoms and cognitive impairment do not respond well to the available treatments. Now the results of a new Phase III clinical trial indicate that the negative symptoms may be treatable with a new investigational drug, cariprazine, which binds to the D2 and D3 dopamine receptor with D3 preference. The researchers, all from the Gedeon Richter pharmaceutical company which developed the drug, enrolled 461 men and women in a randomised, double-blind clinical trial, to compare cariprazine against risperidone (which is commonly used to treat schizophrenia). Patients were treated for 26 weeks, with 77.4% of enrolled patients completing the trial. Full details of the trial are given in the abstract."It is the first to show good results. This is what people have been waiting for now we have to see if there are any side effects that make it not wanted.
The article goes on to say: "The outcomes were measured using a special subscale of the PANSS scale (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) which is a standard method used for measuring symptom severity of patients with schizophrenia. After 26 weeks of treatment, it was found that cariprazine treatment group showed a statistically significant improvement in the PANSS-NFS scale relative to risperidone (-1.47; p=0.002). In addition to the effect on predominant negative symptoms of schizophrenia, patients who took cariprazine also performed significantly better on personal and social functioning than those who took risperidone. Full details of the trial are given in the abstract.
According to lead researcher Dr György Németh (Chief Medical Officer, Gedeon Richter): 'The positive symptoms of schizophrenia can be controlled by drugs, but this is the first study ever to show a significant effect of a compound on negative symptom compared to another antipsychotic. It seems that with cariprazine, we may be able to treat both the positive and negative symptoms with a single medication.'" One drug to treat it all what more could you ask for. I know taking one drug for my mental illness is the best. Although I never had negative symptoms but hear all the time how it effects those others with schizophrenia.
The article ends: "Commenting, ECNP Executive Committee Member Professor Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg said: 'Treatments for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia are still urgently needed as these are critical predictors for patient's recovery and reintegration. The current results suggest that D3-dopaminergic mechanisms may play a role in both causing and treating emotional flatness, which deserve further confirmation.' The trial was organised and supported by the Gedeon Richter pharmaceutical company, which developed cariprazine. The researchers report that the most frequent adverse events (incidence ≥5%) across both treatments groups were insomnia, headache, akathisia, worsening of schizophrenia symptoms, anxiety and somnolence. As this drug has not yet completed the approval process, no indication of the costs of the treatment is available." That is a lot of side effects. It will not work for everyone is what I am thinking.
Showing posts with label Emotion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emotion. Show all posts
Friday, September 4, 2015
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Difficulty assessing effort drives motivation deficits in schizophrenia, study finds
That is the title of this article
I
am writing about. “Individuals with schizophrenia often have trouble engaging
in daily tasks or setting goals for themselves, and a new study from San
Francisco State University suggests the reason might be their difficulty in
assessing the amount of effort required to complete tasks. The research, detailed in an article
published this week in the Journal of
Abnormal Psychology, can assist health professionals in countering
motivation deficits among patients with schizophrenia and help those patients
function normally by breaking up larger, complex tasks into smaller,
easier-to-grasp ones.” The tasks they
set themselves up for maybe too large and they need to make them smaller and
easier to grasp. That makes sense if you
have to clean house just start small and clean a little of a room or just one
room at a time.
I wonder if that is easier to do. “This is one of the first studies to carefully and systematically look at the daily activities of people with schizophrenia - - what those people are doing, what goals are they setting for themselves,’ said David Gard, an associate professor of psychology at SF State who has spent years researching motivation and emotion. ‘We knew that people schizophrenia were not engaging in a lot of goal-directed behavior. We just didn’t know why.’ In 2011, Gard received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the reasons behind this difficulty in goal setting. An earlier article detailing other research from this study, published in May in the journal Schizophrenia Research, showed that when people with schizophrenia do set goals for themselves, they set them for the same reasons as persons without: to connect with others. But motivation deficits are still common among these individuals, and his latest study set out to pinpoint the reason.” I haven’t set any goals for myself in a long time. I have been thinking about it for some time. I do feel a need to change some things in my life. I have become to set in my ways again.
How did they figure out what might work? “Through a series of cognitive assessments and random phone calls, Gard and his colleagues at SF State and the University of California, San Francisco collected data from 47 people with and 41 people without schizophrenia. Participants were called four times a day, randomly throughout the day, for a week and asked about their current mood, as well as what they were doing; how much enjoyment they were getting out of it; and what their goals for the rest of the day were. The results were coded by variables such as how much pleasure they were getting out of their daily activities and how much effort was involved, then compared that with the results from the cognitive assessments. Gard and his fellow researchers found that, while people with schizophrenia engage in low-impact, pleasurable goals - - such as watching TV or eating food for enjoyment - - as much as others, they have a greater difficulty with more complex undertakings or goals requiring more effort.” That is what I have to do is stop watching so much TV and start reading again I haven’t read a real book in over five years. Start my walks again get out of the house.
The article ends with: “There’s something breaking down in the process around assessing high-effort, high-rewards goals,’ Gard said. When the reward is high and the effort is high, that’s when people with schizophrenia struggle to hold in mind and go after the thing they want for themselves. The findings indicate that health-care providers who want to help individuals with schizophrenia set goals for themselves should break larger tasks into smaller, simpler ones with rewards. For example, instead of guiding a patient specifically toward the larger goal of getting in physical shape, a provider could instead encourage them to gradually walk a little bit more every day. That’s something we would do for everyone else, but it might have been avoided in patients with schizophrenia because we thought they weren’t experiencing as much pleasure from their activities as they actually are,’ Gard added. We can help them to identify things that are pleasurable and reward them toward larger goals.” I believe I will give it a try and just start smaller and walk around the lake to get my mail like I used to and build up my walking again and get out of the house.
I wonder if that is easier to do. “This is one of the first studies to carefully and systematically look at the daily activities of people with schizophrenia - - what those people are doing, what goals are they setting for themselves,’ said David Gard, an associate professor of psychology at SF State who has spent years researching motivation and emotion. ‘We knew that people schizophrenia were not engaging in a lot of goal-directed behavior. We just didn’t know why.’ In 2011, Gard received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the reasons behind this difficulty in goal setting. An earlier article detailing other research from this study, published in May in the journal Schizophrenia Research, showed that when people with schizophrenia do set goals for themselves, they set them for the same reasons as persons without: to connect with others. But motivation deficits are still common among these individuals, and his latest study set out to pinpoint the reason.” I haven’t set any goals for myself in a long time. I have been thinking about it for some time. I do feel a need to change some things in my life. I have become to set in my ways again.
How did they figure out what might work? “Through a series of cognitive assessments and random phone calls, Gard and his colleagues at SF State and the University of California, San Francisco collected data from 47 people with and 41 people without schizophrenia. Participants were called four times a day, randomly throughout the day, for a week and asked about their current mood, as well as what they were doing; how much enjoyment they were getting out of it; and what their goals for the rest of the day were. The results were coded by variables such as how much pleasure they were getting out of their daily activities and how much effort was involved, then compared that with the results from the cognitive assessments. Gard and his fellow researchers found that, while people with schizophrenia engage in low-impact, pleasurable goals - - such as watching TV or eating food for enjoyment - - as much as others, they have a greater difficulty with more complex undertakings or goals requiring more effort.” That is what I have to do is stop watching so much TV and start reading again I haven’t read a real book in over five years. Start my walks again get out of the house.
The article ends with: “There’s something breaking down in the process around assessing high-effort, high-rewards goals,’ Gard said. When the reward is high and the effort is high, that’s when people with schizophrenia struggle to hold in mind and go after the thing they want for themselves. The findings indicate that health-care providers who want to help individuals with schizophrenia set goals for themselves should break larger tasks into smaller, simpler ones with rewards. For example, instead of guiding a patient specifically toward the larger goal of getting in physical shape, a provider could instead encourage them to gradually walk a little bit more every day. That’s something we would do for everyone else, but it might have been avoided in patients with schizophrenia because we thought they weren’t experiencing as much pleasure from their activities as they actually are,’ Gard added. We can help them to identify things that are pleasurable and reward them toward larger goals.” I believe I will give it a try and just start smaller and walk around the lake to get my mail like I used to and build up my walking again and get out of the house.
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