Neurotransmitters in Treatment Resistant Schizophrenia Patients With add-on Sodium Benzoate
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Sodium Benzoate 2gram/day, Placebo.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Symptom, Cognitive, Schizophrenia, Schizo Affective Disorder. Basic parameters: 20 years — 55 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Taiwan
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
Functional Connectivity and Associated Neuropeptides Variations in Treatment Resistant Schizophrenia Patients: Treatment Efficacy of add-on Sodium Benzoate
Overview
Although antipsychotic is effective for schizophrenia, however, still certain proportion of patients were not responsive to treatment. Treatment resistant schizophrenia (TRS) is accompanied by function decline and heavy burden. In recent decades, the biological mechanism of schizophrenia extended from dopamine theory to the role of glutamate system. This shift could be an alternative pathway to developing the treatment of TRS. Sodium benzoate (SB) could be an option as a glutamatergic agent for the patients with TRS. However, most evidence of SB is for treating patients with schizophrenia and other mental disorders but the evidence for treating patients with TRS is scarce. To predict the treatment response of SB will be an urgent topic in the future. Little is known about the precise medicine for treating patients with TRS. The present project will extend our pilot randomized clinical trial on SB for TRS. A total of 90 patients with TRS will be enrolled from three centers and will be assigned to 8 weeks of treatment with SB or placebo (2:1). A comprehensive battery of potential markers will be employed, including 1H- magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), brain functional connectivity, genotyping, immune biomarkers, cognitive function, and clinical characteristics. The efficacy of SB on TRS will be confirmed in this project. Predictors for treatment response will be identified. Artificial intelligence algorithms will be used for probing the feasibility of precision medicine.
Detailed description
The design and instrument are identical for two years. This add-on sodium benzoate randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial which is a two-arm, 6-week follow-up trial. The 90 patients will be 2:1 (SB: placebo) randomly assigned to 1. Treatment with sodium benzoate (A); or 2. placebo (P). The group of sodium benzoate treatment will be divided into two subgroups: 1. Responder (AR), and nonresponder (AN), as illustrated in Figure 4. The response criteria is defined the improvement of 20% total PANSS score after 6-week SB treatment. The participants with TRS will be enrolled in this trail from 3 hospitals(National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Chia-Yi branch, Taichung Veteran General Hospital).
Interventions
- Drug Sodium Benzoate 2gram/day
the add-on sodium benzoate with conventional pharmacological treatment - Drug Placebo
the add-on placebo with conventional pharmacological treatment
Primary outcome measures
- Brain imaging, functional MRI [Time frame: 1hours]
Secondary outcome measures (4)
- Clinical psychiatric condition, Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) [Time frame: 20 minutes]
- Wechsler adult intelligence scales 4th edition (WAIS-IV) [Time frame: 1 hours]
- Continuous performance test third edition (CPT-3) [Time frame: 20 minutes]
- Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) [Time frame: 20 minutes]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Fulfil the DSM5 criteria for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder
- Research criteria for treatment resistance: little or no symptomatic response to multiple (at least two) antipsychotic treatment of an adequate duration (at least 6 weeks) and adequate doses (equivalent to at least 600 milliequivalent (meq)/day of chlorpromazine)
- 6 month period without remission (i.e. ≥4 item-score for the positive symptoms on PANSS scale , especially delusional thoughts, conceptual disorganisation, excitements, grandiosity, hallucinatory behaviour, excitement, persecution, and hostility)
- The persistence of illness was defined as a score of ≥4 (moderately ill) on the severity of illness subscale of the Clinical Global Impression scale (CGI-S), and a lack of stable period of good social occupational function.
Exclusion criteria
- Current or previous diagnosis of concurrent DSM-5 disorder due to active medical problems, known neurological disease, or a contraindication to MRI scanning
- Current diagnosis of substance-related disorder
- Any acute or chronic medical condition
- History of head trauma or neurological diseases.
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Quadruple blind
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
Study locations
Taiwan · 1 center
- Taichung Veterans General Hospital Chiayi Branch — Chiayi City
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06340789 · A-BR-110-049