Study design
schizophrenia spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, TargetFlame
BLOOD
TargetFlame is a multicentre trial with two German study sites, one French laboratory and one Austrian academic centre, involved. The study is designed as a randomized, double-blind, controlled multicentre phase III clinical trial on a cohort of prospectively recruited patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder with add-on health economic analyses. Blood samples will be drawn at the German study sites and serum will be prepared. Every other week, serum samples will be shipped to the French laboratory where they will be immediately assessed for IL-6, TNF-alpha and IL-1-beta: three extendively studied pro-inflammatory cytokines that have been consistently found to be elevated in schizophrenia (Miller et al. 