Effect of Add-on Citalopram to Risperidone on Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2007-09-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Negative symptoms in schizophrenia present a challenge to the clinician owing to their poorer
response to conventional treatment with antipsychotics. Negative symptoms in schizophrenia
may be secondary to psychotic symptoms, depressive symptoms, drug-related side effects or
lack of environmental stimulation. Alternately, they may represent core features of the
illness, characterized as primary deficit symptoms. Previous studies have suggested that
atypical antipsychotics may be beneficial in improving deficit symptoms of schizophrenia.
This study aimed at characterizing the nature of improvement of negative symptoms in the
early phase (12 weeks) of treatment with the atypical antipsychotic, risperidone. In order to
account for factors contributing to improvement in secondary negative symptoms, ratings were
carried out of change in positive symptoms, depressive symptoms and drug-related side
effects. Further, add-on citalopram or placebo were administered in a double-blind design to
study the effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) augmentation of risperidone
on negative symptoms. The investigators hypothesized that the improvement in negative
symptoms during the initial phase (12 weeks) of treatment with risperidone will be largely
accounted for by improvement in secondary negative symptoms, rather than of the primary
deficit symptoms.
Phase:
Phase 4
Details
Lead Sponsor:
National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, India