Clinical Research Directory

A Virtual Reality Mindfulness Application for Aggression in Schizophrenia

The study investigates whether a virtual reality-based mindfulness based intervention can reduce impulsive aggression in individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The primary goal is to evaluate whether mindfulness delivered via VR (MBI-VR) improves emotion regulation and engages the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), a brain region involved in cognitive control and regulation of emotional responses. The study also examines whether these effects show a dose-related relationship. Participants will be randomized to receive different doses of MBI-VR intervention or distraction tasks and will complete repeated mindfulness VR sessions. Brain activity will be measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an emotion regulation task, along with clinical assessments of impulsive aggression related symptoms.

A PET/MRI Study of Cobenfy on Dopamine Transmission in Schizophrenia

This is a single site clinical trial in which 12 participants with schizophrenia will be randomized to one of three doses of treatment with Cobenfy for 5 weeks. \[18F\]DOPA PET scans will be obtained before and after treatment to examine the effects of Cobenfy on dopamine transmission. The overall objective of the current study is to measure Cobenfy's ability to engage its putative target (DA transmission/synthesis capacity in the striatum and midbrain as measured by \[18F\]DOPA Kicer (\[18F\]DOPA relative uptake rate)).