The Impact of Quetiapine on the Drug Abuse Patterns of Addicted Schizophrenic Patients
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
1969-12-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The lifetime of substance use disorders in schizophrenia is close to 50%. Substance abuse in
schizophrenia is associated with negative consequences. Unfortunately, there no clear
guidelines for the pharmacological treatment of this dual diagnosis population. Preliminary
results suggest that second-generation antipsychotic drugs (mainly clozapine) may relieve
drug cravings in schizophrenia. We performed a 12-week pilot study to evaluate the impact of
quetiapine, a second-generation antipsychotic, on substance abuse parameters, psychiatric
symptoms and side effects in patients schizophrenia and comorbid substance use disorders. Our
expectation was a 20 % decrease in drug cravings from baseline to end-point.