Schizoaffective Disorders | Johns Hopkins inHealth

Vision

To improve the lives of patients with schizoaffective disorder (defined broadly as schizophrenia with and without prominent mood symptoms) by establishing disease subtypes that facilitate diagnosis, choice of clinical intervention, and the development of novel therapeutics.

Mission

Using deep clinical phenotyping, advanced neuroimaging, data analytics, and new molecular and biochemical strategies, we seek to determine how to optimize the use of currently available antipsychotic treatments, especially clozapine, while identifying the neurobiology underlying different clinical manifestations and differential response to treatment of individuals with schizoaffective disorder.

Research Aims

Personalized diagnosis and treatment

What are the neurobiological differences that distinguish among individuals who respond differently to antipsychotics, especially clozapine? How can these findings be used to develop clinical biomarkers that guide diagnosis and treatment?

Rational use of clozapine

What are the risks and benefits of clozapine in real-world settings? Should FDA policies governing the prescription and dispensation of clozapine change to reflect clinical data on outcomes? What type of service delivery will improve the wider yet safer use of clozapine?

Pathways to new treatment

Can we use cell and animal models to turn recent discoveries about the genetics and brain biochemistry of schizoaffective disorder into targets for the development of new treatments?