Omega-3 Dietary Supplements in Schizophrenia

January 30, 2017 updated by: Delbert Robinson

Detecting Which Patients With Schizophrenia Will Improve With Omega-3 Treatment

This 16-week placebo-control study looks to investigate whether patients with schizophrenia for two years or less may benefit from omega-3 supplements.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study looks to investigate whether patients with schizophrenia for 2 years or less may benefit from omega-3 supplements. The main hypothesis to be tested in this study is that white matter integrity assessed with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and erythrocyte membrane omega-3 concentration may provide the means for identifying patients most likely to derive clinical benefit from omega-3 supplementation.

To test this hypothesis the investigators will enroll 58 patients with recent-onset schizophrenia into a 16-week long randomized double blind placebo-controlled study of risperidone versus risperidone plus omega-3 supplementation. Study assessments after consent will include a baseline MRI and an MRI at the final visit, blood-work, clinical interviews to assess symptoms, and medical assessments for side effects. DTI exams and peripheral omega-3 concentration will be obtained prior to the initiation of treatment and the primary outcome measure will be the total Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale Score.

Specific aims are:

  • To examine the efficacy of omega-3 fatty acids as an adjuvant agent in the treatment of patients with recent-onset schizophrenia. The investigators hypothesize that patients treated with omega-3 fatty acids will demonstrate greater Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) reductions compared to the placebo group.
  • To identify whether pre-treatment fractional anisotropy (FA) assessed by DTI predicts which patients will derive clinical benefit from omega-3 fatty acids. The investigators hypothesize that patients with lower fractional anisotropy will derive greater clinical benefit from omega-3 fatty acid supplementation.
  • To identify whether pre-treatment peripheral omega-3 fatty acid concentrations predict which patients will derive clinical benefit from omega-3 fatty acids. The investigators hypothesize that patients with lower peripheral omega-3 fatty acid concentrations will derive greater clinical benefit from omega-3 fatty acid supplementation.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

50

Phase

  • Not Applicable

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
    • New York
      • Glen Oaks, New York, United States, 11040
        • The Zucker Hillside Hospital

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

Ages Eligible for Study

15 years to 40 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Current DSM-IV-defined diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizophreniform, schizoaffective disorder, psychosis NOS or Bipolar I as assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I DSM-IV Disorders;
  • Does not DSM-IV criteria for a current substance-induced psychotic disorder, a psychotic disorder due to a general medical condition, delusional disorder, brief psychotic disorder, shared psychotic disorder, or a mood disorder with psychotic features;
  • current positive symptoms rated more than 4 (moderate) on one of these BPRS items: conceptual disorganization, grandiosity, hallucinatory behavior, and unusual thought content;
  • is in a early phase of illness as defined by having taken antipsychotic medications for a cumulative lifetime period of 2 years or less;
  • age 15 to 40;
  • competent and willing to sign informed consent; and
  • for women, negative pregnancy test and agreement to use a medically accepted birth control method.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • serious neurological or endocrine disorder or any medical condition or treatment known to affect the brain;
  • any medical condition which requires treatment with a medication with psychotropic effects;
  • significant risk of suicidal or homicidal behavior;
  • cognitive or language limitations, or any other factor that would preclude subjects providing informed consent;
  • medical contraindications to treatment with risperidone (e.g. neuroleptic malignant syndrome with prior risperidone exposure), omega-3 supplements (e.g. bleeding disorder, seafood allergies) or placebo capsules (e.g. allergies to capsule components);
  • contraindications to MRI imaging (e.g. presence of a pacemaker);
  • lack of response to a prior adequate trial of risperidone;
  • taking omega-3 supplements within the past 8 weeks, and
  • requires treatment with an antidepressant or mood stabilizing medication.

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: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Omega-3 capsules & Risperidone
Subjects will take 1 capsule in the morning and 1 capsule in the evening. Each capsule contains 370 mg EPA and 200 mg DHA as well as 2 mg/g tocopherol. The study dose will start on day 1 and remain the same throughout the study.
Drug: Risperidone
The dosage for risperidone will be 1 mg to 6 mg per day. The dose of the risperidone will be based on the participant's clinical improvement and side effects.
Other Names:
  • Risperdal
Drug: Omega-3 capsules
The total daily dose for omega-3 subjects will be 740 mg of eicosapentanoic acid (EPA)and 400 mg of docosahexaenoic acid(DHA). This dose will start on day 1 and stay the same dose until study completion.
Other Names:
  • Omega-3
Other: Placebo & Risperidone
Subjects will take 1 capsule in the morning and 1 capsule in the evening.The placebo is a soybean/corn blend (each capsule contains 1000 mg). The study dose will start on day 1 and remain the same throughout the study.
Drug: Risperidone
The dosage for risperidone will be 1 mg to 6 mg per day. The dose of the risperidone will be based on the participant's clinical improvement and side effects.
Other Names:
  • Risperdal
Drug: Placebo
The total daily dose for subjects assigned to placebo will be 2000 mg. This dose will start on day 1 and stay the same dose until study completion.
Other Names:
  • Placebo capsules

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Treatment Response
Time Frame: 16 weeks
The primary outcome measure will be the total Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale Score. The range of the BPRS is 0 to 126 with higher scores indicated more psychological symptoms.
16 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Delbert Robinson

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Delbert G Robinson, MD, The Zucker Hillside Hospital

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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

May 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 14, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 5, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

February 7, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

February 1, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 30, 2017

Last Verified

January 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 12-308B

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

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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