we aim to examine whether a representative atypical antipsychotic, quetiapine, has different effects from conventional antipsychotics on the magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) markers in schizophrenia patients.
The impact of medications on MRS changes in brain of schizophrenia patients have rarely been studied through a well-controlled study. Most of the MRS studies in schizophrenia patients are cross-sectional and uncontrolled and devoid of any comparison between effects of different drugs. To date, only limited research has explored this issue and the results are conflicting. These conflicting results may be related to small sample size, different patient population and design in these studies. Thus, further studies are warranted. Besides, with the advent of new generation atypical antipsychotics, it will be important to know whether atypical antipsychotics exert different effects on neurons from conventional antipsychotics. If neuronal activity can be improved by atypical antipsychotics, the findings will have great clinical implications. Fifteen patients in the experimental group will receive MRS examinations (including bilateral frontal and temporal area) in two phases: baseline (when they are on a conventional antipsychotic) and 4 weeks after shifting from that conventional antipsychotic to quetiapine. Another 15 schizophrenia patients receiving conventional antipsychotics will serve as the control group. The control group will receive the MRS examinations twice (baseline and 4 weeks later) without change of medications. In each phase, every patient will also receive the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) assessment. The changes of the MRS markers will be analyzed and compared, both within and between the 2 groups, and their correlations with the PANSS scores will be explored.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
30
quetiapine (with equivalent dose to original antipsychotic agent) would replace the original antipsychotic agent for 28 days
keep the original conventional antipsychotic agent for 28 days
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital
Taipei, Taiwan
The change from baseline in neurochemical peak area ratios (NAA/CRE, NAA/CHO, CHO/CRE) at the end of study
Time frame: baseline and 28 th day
changes from baseline in PANSS
Time frame: baseline and 28th day
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