OPAL 1 Projects

There are three OPAL developmental projects and two supplemental projects in OPAL 1, which address important representative problems that affect people diagnosed with schizophrenia throughout the course of illness.  

  1. Improving Accessibility and Personalization of Cognitive Remediation for Schizophrenia (Project 1)
    This project addressed cognitive impairments, which have been detected during the prodromal period until late life and are a key contributor to functional impairments. The project examines ways to personalize cognitive remediation and make it more accessible.  The project examined the feasibility of delivering cognitive remediation in non-clinic settings and baseline testing to tailor the intervention to individual needs.
  2. Adapting Critical Time Intervention to Support Inpatient Medical Care Transitions (Project 2)
    This project addressed the treatment of common chronic medical conditions that are associated with considerable morbidity and premature mortality in schizophrenia. The project adapted Critical Time Intervention (CTI) to the needs of individuals with schizophrenia who are hospitalized for ambulatory care sensitive conditions and examines its preliminary effectiveness.  
  3. Using mHealth to optimize pharmacotherapy regimens (Project 3)
    This project focused on psychotropic medications, which are vital but poorly deployed treatments for schizophrenia.  The project examined the feasibility and effectiveness of using mobile health technology and Experience Sampling Methods (ESM) to optimize psychopharmacologic regimens for individuals with first-episode psychosis. 
  4. Understanding the Co-occurrence of Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD Supplement project)
    This project has completed a set of complementary analyses to characterize important aspects of the co-occurrence of schizophrenia and ADRD diagnoses in a large cohort of older Medicare beneficiaries.
  5. Identifying age-related antecedents to suicide in schizophrenia (Suicide Supplement project)
    This project has established a national cohort of adults with schizophrenia from Medicare claims and National Death Index data. The project examined suicide risk across the lifespan of people with schizophrenia and identified age-related antecedents to suicide deaths.