A United States Extension Study of Corlux for Recurrent Psychotic Symptoms in Psychotic Major Depression
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2006-11-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Corlux (mifepristone) is a new medication that modulates the body's use of a hormone called
cortisol. Under normal conditions, cortisol and other hormones are created by the body in
response to physical and emotional stress, triggering a healthy stress response. People who
suffer from psychotic major depression may have unusually high levels of cortisol circulating
within them or abnormal patterns of cortisol levels, overloading the stress response
mechanism and causing symptoms of psychosis such as delusional thoughts or hallucinations. If
Corlux can keep the body's cortisol receptors from being overloaded, the stress response
system may return to normal function, which may result in improvement of symptoms. The
purpose of this study is to allow patients who have already participated in an earlier 8 week
study of Corlux versus placebo (an inactive pill) to receive additional courses of treatment
with Corlux periodically if a psychotic episode should reappear during a period of one year.