New hopes for schizophrenia patients

Sep 03: New hopes have been revived for the patients suffering from schizophrenia with the positive results of experimental drug called LY2140023.

Results of the drug have shown reduced schizophrenia symptoms with reduced side effects of the drug on the patients according to the study published in the journal ‘Nature’ in comparison to other commonly given anti-psychotic medication that is placebos. Drug avoided the commonly associated side effects such as weight gain, periodontitis, increase of blood fat called triglycerides, involuntary movement, and agitation.

The study was carried out on 197 patients as a part of second stage of tests. They were given a dose of LY2140023 40mg twice a day. After four weeks patients showed fewer symptoms of schizophrenia than those who took placebo.

This new drug acts on a different neurotransmitter called ‘glutamate’ responsible for learning and memory while commonly prescribed drugs act on dopamine or serotonin.

Schizophrenia, a fierce mental illness usually starts in late teens with the symptoms as social withdrawal and cognitive impairment and ranges from hallucinations, delusions to impaired expression. Person suffering from the disease have weird imaginations, hear voices and cherish insecurity thinking that somebody wants to harm.

Drug has revealed positive results on PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale), a scale which measures symptoms of patients with schizophrenia. The treatment consequent adverse events were also moderated to mild ones.

One common event was insomnia, headache, and nausea. The most likely event was susceptibility of mood to change.

Patients treated with LY2140023 scored higher on the improvement scale. Still third stage of clinical trial is needed to confirm the initial findings. If the third trial supports the findings this would provide a great relief to the patients. Drug can be a good option to the present prescriptions as they trigger violent tremors in patients as side effects.