Proposal To Develop A Rapid And Cost-Effective Diagnostic Test For Schizophrenia
Status:
Suspended
Trial end date:
2023-01-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Schizophrenia is a severe psychotic illness of unknown cause that affects 1% of the
population worldwide. Currently, there is no diagnostic test for schizophrenia. Instead, the
diagnosis is typically established through a psychiatric interview of the patient, who is
evaluated against a set of established criteria of signs and symptoms. It can take many
months to years to establish a diagnosis of schizophrenia and achieve an appropriate
treatment regimen to attain resolution of the patient's symptoms. This process is
particularly challenging in areas of limited access to specialists a problem not only in
third world countries and rural regions, but throughout the United States where there can be
long waits to obtain an appointment with a psychiatrist. The present research experiment
investigates a potential novel method for diagnosing schizophrenia.
The overall objective of the study is to test the hypothesis that patients with schizophrenia
will have a heightened tolerance to the sedating effects of anti-psychotic medications, which
will be reflected in differences in their electroencephalogram (EEG) when compared to healthy
normal controls. The investigators expect that the schizophrenia patients will score on the
"more alert" and "less sleepy" ends of these scales, and that the normal control subjects
will show the opposite response. A patient that fails to become sedated or experience the
sleepiness side effects, typically caused by the anti-psychotic medication, may support the
existing diagnosis of schizophrenia. Measures of the subjects' level of sedation that are
found to correlate significantly with EEG response and diagnosis will be used to create a
diagnostic test. This simple and inexpensive test will consist of a single dosage of
anti-psychotic medication, and a rapid assessment tool with scores that have a high degree of
predictive validity for the diagnosis of schizophrenia.