Clinical Research Directory

Developing Brain, Impulsivity and Compulsivity

Background: Impulsivity is acting 'without thinking.' Compulsivity is being overly inflexible. People vary in how impulsive or compulsive they are. Extreme versions of these behaviors play a role in mental disorders. Researchers want to study changes in the brain to learn more about these behaviors. Differences in genes may also play a role. Objective: To learn about genetic \& brain features that explain why levels of impulsivity and compulsivity vary across people. Eligibility: People ages 6 - 80 Design: Participants will be screened with a medical history and medical record review. Participants will talk about their mental and behavioral development. They may discuss topics like drug use and sexual activity. They will complete surveys about their compulsivity and impulsivity. Parents of child participants may also complete these surveys. Participants may take memory, attention, and thinking tests. They may give blood or saliva samples for gene studies and they may give blood to make induced pluripotent stem cells. Participants may have their face and irises photographs taken. Participants may have a magnetic resonance imaging scan. It will take pictures of their brain. The scanner is shaped like a cylinder. Participants will lie on a table that slides in and out of the scanner. A coil will be placed over their head. They will lie still, watch a movie, and play a game. Participants may ask family members to join the study. Researchers are particularly interested in recruiting twin pairs to the study. Participants under age 25 may repeat these tests every 1-2 years until they turn 25 or until the study ends. For those over age 25, participation will last less than 1 month.

Matching Assessment and Treatment for Children With Disruptive Behaviour and Their Parents

This study will develop and test whether personalized profiles of children with Disruptive Behaviour Disorder (DBD) and their parents based on important psychological, emotional, and neuropsychological indicators predict their response to child cognitive behavioral treatment and Behavioral Parent Training.

Pathways 2 Success

This study involves a 3-arm randomized controlled trial designed to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of three preventive interventions designed to reduce risk for escalations in adolescent conduct problems. High school students identified to be at risk for conduct problems will be randomly assigned to one of three intervention options, including a mindfulness-based program, a mindfulness-based program augmented by a new mobile app, and a life skills program. Assessments related to intervention outcomes will be completed by adolescents, parents/guardians, and teachers at baseline, 2 weeks post-intervention, and at a 3-month follow-up.

Genetic and Clinical Correlates of Disruptive Behavior Disorder With and Without Callous-Unemotional Traits

Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD), such as Conduct Disorder (CD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), affect children and adolescents in different ways. Research has shown that some individuals with DBD also display callous-unemotional (CU) traits, including a lack of guilt, uncaring behavior, and shallow emotions. This subgroup tends to have more severe symptoms and a higher risk of negative outcomes. Previous studies suggest that genetic factors may play a role in the development of DBD with CU traits. For example, specific variations of the MAOA gene have been linked to difficulties in recognizing and processing emotions such as sadness and fear, which are often impaired in individuals with CU traits. This study aims to explore how broader genetic profiles may affect DBD and CU traits. In the already enrolled sample, we will explore correlations between the collected clinical data and a larger set of genetic variants. The goal is to improve knowledge about the genetic factors that contribute to differences in behavior, which may help inform strategies to identify risk and resilience in individuals with disruptive behavioral traits.

Assessing Real Life Effectiveness of Treatment in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

The goal of this observational study is to learn if and how pharmacological and psychotherapeutic group treatments can treat clinical symptoms of children and adolescent patients with ADHD. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Are pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments effective on the clinical symptoms of patients with ADHD? * Are pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments effective on symptoms of emotion-behavioral dysregulation? * Is it possible to find associations between individual characteristics and treatment responses evaluating behavioral and neural correlates in children and adolescents with traits of emotion-behavioral dysregulation, externalizing disorders, and/or ADHD, using a panel of multimodal measures. May the data collected contribute to the definition of profiles useful for generating predictive hypotheses aimed at developing more personalized interventions? Researchers will compare the data collected from patients treated with pharmacological and psychotherapeutic group treatments with the data of subjects of comparable sex/gender, age, diagnoses, on the waiting list for treatment to see if pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments effects ADHD and emotional dysregulation symprtoms. Participants, patients who are offered treatment by clinicians according to standard clinical practice, will be asked to participate in the study by undergoing experimental assessments before and after the treatment. The multimodal panel of proposed assessments includes: * behavioral assessments, conducted through the completion of clinical and socio-demographic questionnaires; * neuropsychological assessments, conducted through standardized computerized neuropsychological tests; * neurophysiological assessments, conducted through the recording of NIRS (near infrared spectroscopy) and EEG (electroencephalogram) signals during an attentional task (Go-NoGo) and via a smartwatch.

Using Mentalization Based Therapy to Support Children and Adolescents Referred to Specialist Mental Health Services in the NHS for Aggressive and/or Violent Behaviour

The MICA Study is a research project that has been designed to work out how helpful mentalisation based therapy is. This is a new type of support that helps young people make sense of their own behaviours and feelings, and those of others. It involves meeting regularly with a mental health practitioner and parents/carers can be involved in some meetings too. It is hoped that this new type of support will help young people stop acting aggressively/violently. This project will be delivered in Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (FCAMHS) in England. This service supports some of the most vulnerable young people in the country, who may also have involvement from other professionals including the Youth Justice System. The aim of the research is to make the support better for young people who use these services. This research involves doing a randomised controlled trial. This means half the young people will get the usual support from FCAMHS, and half will get the usual support plus the new support. The results will be used to compare mentalisation based therapy to the support FCAMHS usually provides. This will show the best way to support young people with their aggressive/violent behaviours. To start with, young people will answer a questionnaire. Following this, young people will receive either usual support or usual support plus MBT for six months. After this, young people will answer a questionnaire again. Some young people will be asked to take part in an optional interview to share their thoughts on this research. All young people aged 10-17 years who have been referred to a FCAMHS in England will be asked to take part, as long as they can speak and understand English. Some young people might not want to take part in this research and that will not change the support they receive.

Digital Single Session Intervention for Youth Mental Health

The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of a single-session, digital intervention teaching the principle of practicing the opposite, when administered to youths on the waitlist for psychotherapy, with usual waitlist procedures as a control condition.

Multisite Prevention of Conduct Problems (Fast Track)

The primary aim of this project is to evaluate the effects of a comprehensive intervention to prevent severe and chronic conduct problems in a sample of children selected as high-risk when they first entered school. It is hypothesized that the intervention will have positive effects on proximal child behavior in middle school, and high school affecting long-term adolescent outcomes such as conduct disorder, juvenile delinquency, school dropout, substance use, teen pregnancy, relational competence with peers, romantic partners and parents, education and employment and social and community integration.

Big Feelings: A Study on Children's Emotions in Therapy

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about how psychotherapy works for children and adolescents aged 8 - 15 with anxiety, depression, trauma, or disruptive behaviour. The main question it aims to answer is: • Is the biobehavioural regulation of negative emotion a transdiagnostic mechanism of treatment response in psychotherapy for children with anxiety, depression, trauma and/or disruptive behaviour? Children and their parents will be randomly assigned to an evidence-based, transdiagnostic treatment (the Modular Approach to Therapy for Children with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Conduct Problems; MATCH-ADTC) or a waitlist control condition. Participants in both groups will complete a baseline assessment, weekly measures consisting of brief symptom scales and medication tracking, and quarterly assessments every 3 months. Following the intervention/waitlist period, our team will conduct post-test assessments. All assessments, except for the weekly surveys, will consist of symptom scales, clinical interviews, experimental tasks and physiological measures.

The Effectiveness of Forensic Outpatient Systemic Therapy: a Multiple Case Experimental Design

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness and mediators of Forensic Outpatient Systemic Therapy (FAST).

A Study on the Preference of Risperidone Dosage Forms

This study aimed to understand patients' needs and preferences for antipsychotic dosage forms.

The Effectiveness of Blended Forensic Ambulant Systemic Therapy

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether blended Forensic Ambulant Systemic Therapy (FASTb) is equally effective as regular FAST (FASTr).

CFT-focused Mental Health Intervention With Exposure Training for Youngsters

The aim of this study is to explore if individual CFT-based intervention with exposure training in virtual reality decreases conduct disorder symptoms and callous-unemoitonal traits , as well as increases subjective emotional welbeing among 15-to-20 year-old male prisoners and boys placed to state's residential schools. We will also study factors that may predict adherence to the intervention. These factors include mental well-being, motivation, and working alliance. In addition, we will evaluate the costs of the program.