A Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study of the Ampakine CX516... : Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology (original) (raw)

Articles

A Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study of the Ampakine CX516 Added to Clozapine in Schizophrenia

Goff, Donald C. MD*†; Leahy, Leslie PhD*†; Berman, Ileana MD†‡; Posever, Thomas MD§∥; Herz, Lawrence MD∥¶; Leon, Andrew C. PhD#; Johnson, Steven A. PhD**; Lynch, Gary PhD††

*Psychiatry Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, †Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; ‡Taunton State Hospital, Taunton, Massachusetts; §Lemmuel Shattuck Hospital, ∥Tufts University Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; ¶Bedford Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bedford, Massachusetts; #Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Department of Psychiatry, New York, New York; **Cortex Pharmaceuticals, ††Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine, California

Received December 22, 2000; accepted after revision May 21, 2001.

Address requests for reprints to: Donald C. Goff, MD, Freedom Trail Clinic, 25 Staniford Street, Boston, MA 02114.

Abstract

CX516, a positive modulator of the glutamatergic α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid receptor, improves performance in tasks requiring learning and memory in animals. CX516 was added to clozapine in 4-week, placebo-controlled, dose-finding (N = 6) and fixed-dose (N = 13) trials. CX516 was tolerated well and was associated with moderate to large, between-group effect sizes compared with placebo, representing improvement in measures of attention and memory. These preliminary results suggest that CX516 and other “ampakines” hold promise for the treatment of schizophrenia.