Psychosis Research
Leading-Edge Research on Schizophrenia and Psychotic Disorders
The Psychosis Research Program (PRP), formerly the Commonwealth Research Center (CRC), was created in 1987 at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center (MMHC) by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) to address the need for leading-edge clinical research on schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. This continued a long-standing tradition of the study of psychosis at Massachusetts Mental Health Center. Since then, we have expanded the scope of our work to include numerous other areas of psychosis research.
The Psychosis Research Program also provides a base of support for the researchers of the Harvard Department of Psychiatry located in the Southeast region of Massachusetts. This research, largely psychopharmacological in nature, is headed by Dr. Theo Manschreck at Corrigan Mental Health Center and Dr. Ileana Berman at Taunton State Hospital.
About the Psychosis Research Program
Under the leadership of Alan Green, MD, the Psychosis Research Program mission was focused on areas that were the strengths of Massachusetts Mental Health Center: psychopharmacology, neurophysiology, service research and family studies. The focus later broadened to include comorbid medical disorders, first episode schizophrenia and other psychoses, neuroimaging, substance use disorders in schizophrenia, and research on children with severe mental illness.
When Larry Seidman, PhD, became the Director of the Psychosis Research Program in November 2002, his central goal was to develop new knowledge about psychosis in order to reduce the significant morbidity associated with psychotic illnesses. The Center specifically focuses on research designed to further understand the underlying mechanisms and manifestations of psychotic illnesses and the optimal treatments for persons with severe and persistent mental illness.
The Psychosis Research Program directs programs for the early intervention and prevention of psychotic disorders and is engaged in the ongoing development of additional studies and programs. The Program particularly emphasizes the early phases of psychotic illnesses, while a second focus has been on understanding the progression of schizophrenia spectrum illnesses in people at three different phases. The program also studies cognitive impairment and its treatment.
We have continued to widen our focus beyond Massachusetts Mental Health Center and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health community to also serve as a base for research of numerous investigators within the Harvard Department of Psychiatry and across the country. The PRP has become known as a center for the study of cognition in psychosis, and in the assessment of risk and protection factors in mental illness.
The work of the Psychosis Research Program has long been supported by several advisory committees, collaborative research groups, and a robust infrastructure to foster the growth of clinical investigation.
Active Research Studies
Clozapine is a highly effective treatment for psychotic disorders, but we do not know at this time which patients best respond to this treatment. This study seeks to determine if there are differences as seen in tests of cognition and brain function in individuals treated with clozapine or risperidone. The results of this study will help doctors in choosing the right medications.
InVEST is a school and work coaching program designed to help teens meet their school and work goals. In InVEST, teens can learn different skills and strategies that may help them meet their goals by developing organization skills and strategies to manage stress and procrastination.
Sessions begin by assessing the teen's goals, noting any difficulties with procrastinating, dealing with stress, or organizing their time. Sessions are then based on the specific needs of each teen. Our coach communicates and collaborates with the client's individual therapist, school counselor, and family to build a team to support the teen to achieve these goals.
The Learn, Assess, Manage, Prevent (LAMP) Study aims to determine whether data that your phone and smart watch automatically collects may one day in the future provide useful information about understanding depression or schizophrenia and psychosis.
The apps can run on your smartphone and will collect GPS data (where you are), anonymized call and text messages logs, information on when your phone is off/on, and also asks you to complete surveys about your mood, sleep, anxiety, and symptoms of schizophrenia or depression. This app will always be collecting data, even if you do not notice it doing so.
SPARCS, a National Institute of Mental Health funded research project, studies people with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, first-degree relatives of people with psychotic disorders (siblings, parents or children), and healthy volunteers, to investigate whether there are differences in brain activity during sleep and whether these differences affect memory and learning.
The Center for Sleep and Cognition (CfSC) at BIDMC is working with patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and healthy control participants in a study exploring the ability of light electrical stimulation directed to the scalp during a nap to augment sleep.
Participants in this study track their sleep at home and then come into the lab to participate in three afternoon nap sessions (one acclimation nap; two experimental naps) in the CfSC at BIDMC, with at least a two-week break between the two experimental naps. During one of the naps, light stimulation is applied to the frontal regions of the participant's head using transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) aimed at boosting certain brainwave patterns typically experienced during sleep.
Participants are also completing measures of cognitive and emotional processing before and after the naps to determine if this stimulated sleep benefits performance.
The TMS Study looks at the potential effects of using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to see if this improves the symptoms of people with schizophrenia. TMS is noninvasive and stimulates the brain using a magnetic field to cause a change in the activity in the brain. The magnetic field is produced by a coil that is held next to your scalp.
Half of participants receive the TMS treatment while the other half receive a sham treatment. A sham treatment looks and feels like the real TMS, but is not real. Each participant has a 50% (1 in 2) chance of being placed in either group. The study takes approximately 3 weeks.
Understanding Prodromes & Lowering Risk in Family Therapy (UPLIFT) is a family treatment program for teens and young adults who have experienced changes in their thinking, mood and daily functioning that suggest they might be at clinical high risk for developing psychosis. We are a network of seven university clinics conducting research on effective treatments for youth experiencing these mental health challenges.
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