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Status unknownNCT02805088ELISEUpdated Jun 21, 2016

Emotions in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders: a Common Vulnerability?

An interventional study of Electroencephalographic recordings and neuropsychological evaluation in Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia, sponsored by CHU de Reims. Status unknown at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2016-06-21.

Sponsored by CHU de Reims · Not applicable and Interventional

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Jun 2016), so the status shown — last known as Recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
240
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

The initial aim of the project was to gain an understanding of the comprehension of "language-oriented" emotions among schizophrenic and bipolar patients. By "language-oriented" emotions, the investigators mean the emotions that are conveyed by means of language, whether through the emotional valence of the words, the expression of an emotional state or emotional prosody. Although they involve different diagnostic categories, schizophrenic and bipolar disorders nevertheless share a number of symptoms, in particular in the emotional sphere, and do so to such an extent that the question of whether there may, at the clinical, cognitive and etiopathogenic levels, exist a continuum between these disorders is frequently raised. Taking this hypothesis of a clinical continuum as our starting point, the investigators explored the understanding of emotions contextualized by language in these two clinical populations, namely patients exhibiting schizophrenic and bipolar disorders. To these populations, the investigators also added the dimension of vulnerability in the form of non-clinical participants varying in terms of their traits of schizotypy and hypomania, thus orienting this project toward the early identification of cognitive-emotional markers and possibly also their prevention.

Read the detailed description

The aim of this proposal is to investigate disturbances of understanding of "emotional language" in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. By "emotional langague", the investigators mean emotions wich can be drawn from utterances, thanks to affective valence of words or phrases, expression of emotional state or prosody. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share several symptoms, particularly those related to emotional sphere, in such a way that it is frequently asked whether these disorders could be formalized on a continuum. Comparing the cognitive-emotional functioning of these two kinds of patients should allow identifying cognitive markers of the psychotic symptom dimension common in both diseases.

On the basis of the abundant literature regarding cognitive-emotional functioning in schizophrenia and on the more infrequent literature concerning bipolar functioning, the investigators hypothesized that the difficulties in processing emotions, in attributing intentionality and in integrating information for meaning are markers for the psychotic symptom dimension common in both pathologies. To test this hypothesis, the investigators chose to investigate language understanding because it can imply a semantic-emotional processing and because it necessitates integration processes. The integration processes obligatory operate on semantic information, from which it can be added, in ecological situations, prosodic and intentional information. The proposed methodology involves different levels of language, requiring more or less complex integration processes - literal language and figurative language - and different emotional features - affective valence of words and expressions and emotional prosody -.

The investigators plan to conduct behavioral and electrophysiological (event-related potentials) studies. For the later, The investigators will focus on electrophysiological components well known to be implied in language and emotional processing: the N400, the LPC (Late Positive Component) and the LPP (Late Positive Potential). The combination of behavioral and electrophysiological indicators will allow the identification of the neurocognitive mechanisms shared by both schizophrenic and bipolar patients, particularly those who experienced a psychotic episode, in comparison with those of healthy participants. These studies will be conducted on 60 stable schizophrenic patients, 60 euthymic bipolar patients with or without psychotic symptoms, and 120 healthy participants, matched on age and educational achievement level to each pathological group. Different instruments will be used to investigate, in both pathological groups and their controls, different emotional dimensions (anhedonia, alexithymia, positive or negative affectivity, depression, anxiety). Investigating the cognitive-emotional functioning of patients from a dimensional approach (psychotic symptom dimension) rather than from a categorical approach could impulse a new way of thinking diagnosis or identifying factors of vulnerability and protection for these diseases.

02

Conditions studied

  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Schizophrenia
03

In context

Bipolar Disorder

1,637 studies on the registry are indexed under Bipolar Disorder; 258 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 240 is above the median of 63 across 1,245 interventional studies indexed under Bipolar Disorder.

Browse Bipolar Disorder studies →

Lead sponsor

CHU de Reims is the lead sponsor of 275 studies on the registry; 49 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

Patients :

Men or women, right-handed, with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, according to the DSM-IV criteria, aged from 18 to 65 years-old Native French speaker Clinically stabilised Able to provide informed written and verbal consent

Healthy Controls :

Men or women, right-handed, aged from 18 to 65 years-old Native French speaker Able to provide informed written and verbal consent

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria

Patients :

A recent alcohol and/or drug abuse or dependence A significant general medical illness, including neurological disorders or head trauma A sensorial impairment (visual and/or hearing)

Healthy Controls :

A personal or first-degree-relative history of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder according to DSM-IV A recent alcohol and/or drug abuse or dependence A significant general medical illness, including neurological disorders or head trauma A sensorial impairment (visual and/or hearing)

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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
240 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Bipolar Disorder patients

    Other: Electroencephalographic recordings · Other: neuropsychological evaluation · Other: clinical evaluation of symptoms

  • Experimental
    Schizophrenia patients

    Other: Electroencephalographic recordings · Other: neuropsychological evaluation · Other: clinical evaluation of symptoms

  • Experimental
    Healthy Volunteers

    Other: Electroencephalographic recordings · Other: neuropsychological evaluation · Other: clinical evaluation of symptoms

Interventions

  • OtherElectroencephalographic recordings
  • Otherneuropsychological evaluation
  • Otherclinical evaluation of symptoms
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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Event-related brain potentials (ERP)

    Time frame: within 30 days

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Chu Reims
    France, Reims 51092, France
    Recruiting
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Terrien S, Gobin P, Iakimova G, Coutte A, Thuaire F, Baltazart V, Mazzola-Pomietto P, Besche-Richard C. Electrophysiological correlates of emotional meaning in context in relation to facets of schizotypal personality traits: A dimensional study. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2016 Mar;70(3):141-50. doi: 10.1111/pcn.12366. Epub 2015 Dec 22. PubMed 26482112 ↗
  • Terrien S, Gobin P, Coutte A, Thuaire F, Iakimova G, Mazzola-Pomietto P, Besche-Richard C. Emotional Meaning in Context in Relation to Hypomanic Personality Traits: An ERP Study. PLoS One. 2015 Sep 22;10(9):e0138877. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138877. eCollection 2015. PubMed 26394230 ↗
  • Terrien S, Stefaniak N, Morvan Y, Besche-Richard C. Factor structure of the French version of the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) in non-clinical young adults. Compr Psychiatry. 2015 Oct;62:105-13. doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.07.001. Epub 2015 Jul 8. PubMed 26343474 ↗
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jun 21, 2016, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02805088
Lead sponsor
CHU de Reims
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jun 17, 2016
Start date
Feb 2014
Primary completion
Aug 2016 (estimated)
Last update
Jun 21, 2016

Study contacts

Arthur KALADJIAN
Contact
akaladjian@chu-reims.fr
326787045 ext. 33
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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