The Clinical Services and Diagnostics Core of the CCNMD represents a unique resource that is organized around the recruitment, characterization and rigorous diagnostic evaluation of first-episode, antipsychotic-naive schizophrenia and non-schizophrenia psychotic subjects, and healthy controls, and the acquisition of clinical data and diagnoses of subjects used in postmortem studies. Clinical research studies conducted in the Center will use multimodal electrophysiological methods, functional neuroimaging (fMRI) approaches (Project 4), and a novel PET method (Project 5) to test hypotheses regarding the relationships between cortical neuronal network activity, GABA neurotransmission and information processing deficits in schizophrenia. The Core integrates and coordinates the recruitment and assessment of subjects across projects within the Center as well as for other funded collaborative projects to ensure that subjects are efficiently and productively engaged with a minimum redundancy of activities. The clinical and diagnostic expertise of Core faculty and staff is also utilized in the characterization of the clinical research diagnoses of individuals whose post-mortem brain specimens are used in Project 1. The infrastructure of the Clinical Services and Diagnostics Core also serves as an educational opportunity for young investigators to develop seed proposals to address questions relating to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, and as a means to educate the practicing clinicians, students, and the general public about advances in schizophrenia research.
- Services and Research for Recovery in Serious Mental Illness (SRRSMI) Division
SRRSMI provides comprehensive specialized services to adults with serious and persistent mental illness such as schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. SRRSMI facilitates real continuity of care by providing a single system of integrated services, rather than separate programs. Treatment goals are aimed at rehabilitation and recovery and are tailored to suite each consumer’s clinical needs at any given point in time. Supportive and psychoeducational services for family members are provided, and SRRSMI also works closely with community service agencies to assure continuity of care.
- Services for the Treatment of Early Psychoses (STEP) Program
STEP is a clinical program for the evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation of people who may be experiencing early symptoms and signs of psychotic illness. The STEP treatment team offers continued therapy and follow-up care, including state-of-the-art psychotherapeutic and medical treatment, along with regular contact with a psychiatrist. The STEP program also contributes to research activities intended to determine how early symptoms contribute to the onset and course of psychotic disorders in order to make better treatment decisions.
STEP Program brochure
To view this brochure the
Adobe® Reader® plug-in is required.
For more information about the Clinical Services and Diagnostics Core of the CCNMD, please contact Kevin Eklund, BSN, at (412) 586-9009.
| Home |
Corrie Long