Alex Kopelowicz
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Most people with psychosis are not violent. Still, people with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia face a higher risk of violent behavior, and that violence worsens their outcomes and adds to stigma.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Psychology
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
schizophrenia
psychosis
clozapine
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Test whether clozapine, compared with treatment as usual using other antipsychotics, delays violent acts among 280 people with schizophrenia at high risk for violence, measured by the MacArthur Community Violence Interview in a 24-week, 7-site randomized trial.
- Test whether clozapine's anti-violence effect works through the PANSS Excitement Factor, a combined rating of excitement, uncooperativeness, poor impulse control and hostility from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale.
- Explore how clozapine versus treatment as usual changes aggression on the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm, a laboratory behavior task, and changes positive symptoms such as persecutory delusions.
- Explore whether changes in alcohol and substance use under clozapine help explain differences in violence risk, using safety and treatment-engagement protocols built on standard clinic personnel.
More about the research
Earlier studies suggest clozapine, an antipsychotic medication, reduces aggression better than other antipsychotics. However, those studies were mostly small and not randomized. Many measured hostility or self-harm rather than actual violent acts, and few took place in everyday outpatient care. No large study has tested whether clozapine prevents violence in community settings.
Why it matters
There is currently no standard approach for treating violence in schizophrenia. This trial could give clinicians direct evidence on whether clozapine reduces violent acts among outpatients at high risk. Its safety and engagement protocols use typically available staff, so a positive result could be put into practice in community mental health care, benefiting patients, their families and public safety.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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William Smith
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Identify facilitators and barriers to using behavioral economic and financial incentive strategies for patients leaving Coordinated Specialty Care for first-episode psychosis, guided by a stakeholder steering committee.
Ayana Jordan
New York University, NY·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether a mobile intervention, in which a community health representative screens eight life areas and links people to services, keeps 200 people who use drugs engaged in safety services better than usual care.
The school
University of California-Los Angeles: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 803 research doctorates a year.
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