Schizophrenia remains one of the most debilitating psychiatric problems throughout the world. Many individuals suffering from schizophrenia receive little benefit from the currently available treatments. This is likely due to the fact that the treatments available are still the ones used for over 50 years and very few new treatments have been introduced since. In addition, people living with schizophrenia often experience a reduced quality of life together with treatment nonadherence, which can increase the risk of relapse, rehospitalization, and self-harm, leading to a reduced quality of life and increased economic burden.

The rapidly expanding field of psychiatry now provides us with a more complete understanding of the neurobiological processes that contribute to schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders. This new information suggests many novel unexplored targets for the development of novel diagnostic and treatment strategies.

At the MSRP, we are committed to advancing our ability to understand, diagnose, and treat schizophrenia through innovative research combining psychopharmacology with novel technologies such as Virtual Reality, computational neuroscience, computerized cognitive remediation, neuroimaging, genetics, and mobile digital health systems. Ultimately, we hope these studies will lead to improved treatment outcomes, higher remission rates, and an improved quality of life for those individuals suffering from this disorder.

The MSRP is particularly proud to be able to offer state-of-the art research opportunities to participants who may have suffered mental health inequities in the treatment of their disorder and who may not have access to front-line research.

Our research program includes psychiatrists, psychologists, scientists, and data scientists under the leadership of Dr. Jean Pierre Lindenmayer, who has spent his entire career working in the field of schizophrenia and related disorders. Additionally, at the MSRP, many of our scientists and researchers are clinicians actively involved in the treatment of schizophrenia patients.

• Provide consent to allow research staff to review medical records and perform clinical procedures
• Complete Physical and Laboratory examinations (e.g., vital signs, blood draws)  
• For pharmacological research studies, take an investigational medication or placebo
• Meet with a psychiatrist, psychologist, and research staff member to conduct clinical interviews and evaluations
• Most, but not all, of our research studies, involve taking a research medication. We sometimes have studies that do not require a participant to take any research medicines.

We typically conduct and recruit for different research studies at any given time. The specifics of eligibility/exclusionary criteria may vary. However, in most cases, a person who meets the criteria above would likely be eligible for at least one or more of the research studies conducted at Manhattan Schizophrenia Research Program. We work closely with our research participants’ providers. We will compensate you for your time and effort if you participate in our research studies.