Emotional Response in Psychiatric and Control Participants

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Schizophrenia, Emotions

In brief

The purpose of this research is to understand how the emotions of people with different mental health concerns (e.g., people with schizophrenia, people with major depressive disorder) differ from individuals without mental health concerns. A large body of literature suggests that people with mental illnesses have emotional abnormalities compared to healthy individuals, but a number of these abnormalities are not well understood. For example, often people with schizophrenia report on questionnaires that they experience fewer pleasant emotions when talking with other people, but some evidence suggests these individuals report a similar amount of pleasant emotion when they are actually engaged in a pleasant activity. Thus, it is unclear the extent to which reports of emotional abnormalities extend to a more real-world setting. In the tasks in the current proposal, participants will engage in a series of tasks designed to assess their emotional functioning. These tasks involve viewing emotional stimuli on the computer, engaging in social interactions, and consuming small amounts of food. In all tasks, participants will make ratings of their experiences of pleasure (and displeasure). We will then compare the experiences of patient groups to those of healthy individuals to test how emotional ratings might differ across these tasks.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03056781

Run by

University of California, Irvine

People needed

46

Starts

2017-02-15

Expected to finish

2018-08-01

Last updated by the study team

2018-12-14

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 65. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• For control participants, you are eligible to participate in this study if you are between 18 and 65 years of age, you are fluent in English, and you have not been clinically diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder.
• For psychiatric patients, you are eligible to participate in this study if you are between 18 and 65 years of age, you are fluent in English, and you have been clinically diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or depression with no recent hospitalization or changes in your psychiatric medications.

You may not qualify if…

• For control participants, you are not eligible to participate in the study if you have a history of stroke or a current history of substance or alcohol dependence. You are also not eligible to participate in this study if you have had a diagnosis of substance abuse in the past three months. You are not eligible to participate if you have a current or past history of a major medical illness, significant tremors, a history of a head injury or prolonged unconsciousness.
• For psychiatric patients, you are not eligible to participate in the study if you have had major changes to your psychotropic medications within the last two months, have a history of stroke or a current history of substance or alcohol dependence. You are also not eligible to participate in this study if you have had a diagnosis of substance abuse in the past three months, a current or past history of a major medical illness, significant tremors, or a history of a head injury or prolonged unconsciousness.

Where it is running

• Social Ecology 1 — Irvine, California, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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