The effect of sodium nitroprusside on psychotic symptoms and spatial working memory in patients with schizophrenia

anon79999497 · September 23, 2016, 11:23am

RESULTS: SNP did not lead to any reduction in psychotic symptoms or improvement in SWM performance compared to placebo.
CONCLUSIONS: Although this study was negative, it is possible that the beneficial effects of SNP may occur in patients with a shorter history of illness, or with more acute exacerbation of symptoms.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The effect of sodium nitroprusside on psychotic symptoms and spatial working memory in patients with schizophrenia: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

JM Stone, PD Morrison, I Koychev, F Gao, TJ Reilly, M Kolanko, A Mohammadinasab, S Kapur and PK McGuire, Psychological medicine, Dec 2016

Sodium nitroprusside (SNP) has been reported to rapidly reduce psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. This has the potential to revolutionize treatment for schizophrenia. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that SNP leads to a reduction in psychotic symptoms and an improvement in spatial working memory (SWM) performance in patients with schizophrenia.This was a single-centre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial performed from 27 August 2014 to 10 February 2016 (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT02176044). Twenty patients with schizophrenia aged 18-60 years with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were recruited from psychiatric outpatient clinics in the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, London, UK. Baseline symptoms were measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the 18-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-18), and SWM was assessed using the CANTAB computerized test. Participants received either an infusion of SNP (0.5 μg/kg per min for 4 h) or placebo and were re-assessed for symptoms and SWM performance immediately after the infusion, and 4 weeks later.SNP did not lead to any reduction in psychotic symptoms or improvement in SWM performance compared to placebo.Although this study was negative, it is possible that the beneficial effects of SNP may occur in patients with a shorter history of illness, or with more acute exacerbation of symptoms.

anon11056724 · September 23, 2016, 3:25pm

This is complete ■■■■■■■■ that this study failed. I read the report from the first studies in Brazil and they sounded too good to be true. This is clearly a case of big pharma sweeping this one under the rug because it would basically change the way psychosis is treated. Also it would be an embarrassment to a lot of doctors that they overlooked this common medicine for so long. I’m calling bs on this one

anon79999497 · September 23, 2016, 3:41pm

Post flagged for offensive content.

anon11056724 · September 23, 2016, 3:44pm

Oops my bad:/
1515

bystander10 · September 23, 2016, 10:13pm

This is so disappointing.

anon11056724 · September 23, 2016, 10:53pm

Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the proof of concept study taking pass at Mass General and NYU? The results weren’t supposed to be in until 2017.
I saw this on the FDA web page.