Treating Cognition in Schizophrenia With Atomoxetine and Cognitive Remediation

September 24, 2020 updated by: Carol A. Tamminga, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Cognitive Treatments in Schizophrenia

This research is being done because people with schizophrenia often have problems with thinking including learning, remembering, paying attention, and problem solving. During this study, we will test if cognitive remediation (computer games made to improve thinking), used along with a drug called atomoxetine, may help the problems in thinking as well as some of the symptoms of schizophrenia.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Persons with schizophrenia in a stable and residual antipsychotic- treated clinical condition for at least 8 weeks will be recruited from several public mental health treatment settings into the UTSW Schizophrenia Research Clinic. Each volunteer will receive information about the protocol and its risks and benefits. If they give their informed consent after a full opportunity to learn about the details of the study, they will be allowed to proceed. All recruits will have been treated with optimal dosing of any 2nd generation antipsychotic drug (APD-2) and will have been clinically stable with respect to psychotic symptoms for at least 6 weeks prior to randomization, and on a stable dose of the medication for at least 2 weeks. All eligible volunteers will receive a routine medical assessment and psychiatric diagnostic work-up including the SCID and a consensus diagnosis by two experienced clinicians based on all available data, prior to the randomization. Just prior to randomization, the following sets of assessments will be performed: (1) Medical: Physical Examination, Clinical Chemistries, EKG, urinalysis, weight, and vital signs; (2) Symptomatic: general psychiatric symptom assessment, including the scores on the PANSS, Psychosis Change Scale, and CGI; (3) Cognitive: standard neuropsychometric test battery and surrogate psychosocial tests; all of the assessment batteries will be repeated at the end of the 12-week treatment period, and repeated again at the end of the three month follow-up period (at 6 months from study start). Clinical symptom scales, weight, and vital signs will be repeated at weeks 4, 8, 12, 16 , and 24 during the study.

The schizophrenia volunteers will be randomized into four treatment groups: (1) atomoxetine plus cognitive remediation; (2) atomoxetine plus remediation control; (3) placebo plus cognitive remediation; and (4) placebo plus remediation control. Atomoxetine or matching placebo will be administered at a dose of 40mg bid (80mg/day) or the placebo equivalent. The remediation sequence will last for 60 minutes and will be administered three times weekly; the remediation control will be administered on the same schedule and for the same duration. Because the volunteers attend the clinic so regularly, we will have an opportunity to track their progress, monitor medication adherence, and optimize study participation.

Then, each volunteer will be followed up while taking their blinded study medications, but without any more remediation/control sessions, for the next 3 months. Psychiatric rating scales will be completed the following times, relative to the blinded randomization: baseline, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 months, whereas the neuropsychological battery will be completed at baseline and at 3 and 6 months.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
119

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Texas
      • Dallas, Texas, United States, 75390
        • The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 60 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
  • Males and females.
  • Ages 18-60 years old.
  • All races and ethnicities.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Diagnosis of an organic brain disease.
  • Diagnosis of DSM-IV alcohol or substance abuse within the last month or DSM-IV alcohol or substance dependence within the last 3 months.
  • Meet criteria for primary negative symptoms, established by clinical judgment.
  • Current or past history of clozapine treatment for antipsychotic non-response.
  • Patients hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital within the previous 30 days.
  • Patients with an unstable medical condition, as determined by the Investigator
  • Colorblindness
  • Concurrent treatment with electroconvulsive therapy or psychotherapy.
  • Pregnant women.

  • Must be able to read, speak, and understand English.

    • We do not have the resources necessary to properly study non-English speaking patients in this study. The computer software used for cognitive remediation and some clinical assessments are only available in English. The need to provide such resources in foreign languages would be prohibitive to the successful completion of the study.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Other: Atomox/CR
Patients are given the drug Atomoxetine and Cognitive Remediation training.
Drug: Atomoxetine
40mg 2po qam
Other Names:
  • Strattera
Other: Atomox/Control
Patients are given the drug Atomoxetine and Remediation Control training.
Drug: Atomoxetine
40mg 2po qam
Other Names:
  • Strattera
Other: Placebo/CR
Patients are given a Placebo and Cognitive Remediation training.
Drug: Placebo
40mg 2po qam
Other Names:
  • Cornstarch capsule
Other: Placebo/Control
Patients are given Placebo and Remediation Control training.
Drug: Placebo
40mg 2po qam
Other Names:
  • Cornstarch capsule

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Neuropsychological Measures for MATRICS
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Gordon Continuous Performance Test - Distractibility Version The test is designed assess a person's executive functioning by testing their ability to maintain their focus over a period of time. They are intended to respond to a series of targets or inhibit their responses to a variety of foils. They are mainly assessed for their omissions and commissions. The omission and commission errors assess the person's ability to screen out extraneous stimuli while responding correctly and inhibiting incorrect responding. This means lower scores are better. The scale is 0-126.
12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Clinical Outcomes
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Birchwood Social Function Scale (SFS) This scale is given to determine a person's ability to function independently and in social settings without difficulty. It assesses a variety of settings with independent subscales (whose scores vary in range) but in which the higher score is always better. These subscales (Withdrawal/Social Engagement; Interpersonal Communication; Independence-Performance; Independence-Competence; Recreation; Prosocial; and, Employment/Occupation) are combined and developed into a mean score. These scores range from 0-32.
12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Stanley Medical Research Institute

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
September 1, 2003

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
February 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
February 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
February 24, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
February 24, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
March 5, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
September 25, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
September 24, 2020

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
September 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 0803-476
  • 1R34MH075863-01A2 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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