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T40. GLYCERYL TRINITRATE IN FIRST EPISODE PSYCHOSIS UNMEDICATED WITH ANTIPSYCHOTICS: A RANDOMISED CONTROLLED FEASIBILITY STUDY

ABSTRACT: Abstract Background There is a pressing need for new classes of treatment for psychosis. A key therapeutic target for novel compounds is the NMDA receptor, which may be modulated by nitric oxide donors such as sodium nitroprusside (SNP). Recent early phase studies of SNP in patients with psychosis have had mixed results, and the drug has to be administered intravenously. GTN is a well-established cardiovascular medicine that is also a nitric oxide donor, and can be given orally. We explored the safety and effectiveness of GTN in unmedicated patients with a first episode of psychosis. Methods A single-centre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted from December 2016 to April 2019 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02906553). Patients with a first episode of psychosis were recruited from the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, London, UK. Nineteen patients were randomised to receive 3 x sprays of GTN or placebo for 3 consecutive days, and re-assessed on Day 7. Thirteen participants were included in the final analyses. At each assessment point, symptom levels were measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and cognitive performance was evaluated using the Jumping to Conclusions (JTC) and the Hopkins Verbal Learning (HVLT) tasks. Results Compared to placebo, GTN was well tolerated, but it was not associated with significant effects on either psychotic symptoms or cognition. Bayesian statistics indicated with moderate confidence that GTN does not have a therapeutic effect. Discussion This study indicates that nitric oxide donors are not therapeutically beneficial in psychosis. It also highlights the difficulties in recruiting unmedicated patients with psychosis. Future clinical trials would benefit from frameworks built into clinical services, to signpost patients not responding to medication and those discontinuing medication to clinical trials of alternatives.

SUBMITTER: Merritt K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7234164 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:ObjectivesTo test the feasibility and acceptability of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate a Smartphone-based self-management tool in Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) services.DesignA two-arm unblinded feasibility RCT.SettingSix NHS EIP services in England.ParticipantsAdults using EIP services who own an Android Smartphone. Participants were recruited until the recruitment target was met (n=40).InterventionsParticipants were randomised with a 1:1 allocation to one of two conditions: (1) treatment as usual from EIP services (TAU) or (2) TAU plus access to My Journey 3 on their own Smartphone. My Journey 3 features a range of self-management components including access to digital recovery and relapse prevention plans, medication tracking and symptom monitoring. My Journey 3 use was at the users' discretion and was supported by EIP service clinicians. Participants had access for a median of 38.1 weeks.Primary and secondary outcome measuresFeasibility outcomes included recruitment, follow-up rates and intervention engagement. Participant data on mental health outcomes were collected from clinical records and from research assessments at baseline, 4 months and 12 months.Results83% and 75% of participants were retained in the trial at the 4-month and 12-month assessments. All treatment group participants had access to My Journey 3 during the trial, but technical difficulties caused delays in ensuring timely access to the intervention. The median number of My Journey 3 uses was 16.5 (IQR 8.5 to 23) and median total minutes spent using My Journey 3 was 26.8 (IQR 18.3 to 57.3). No serious adverse events were reported.ConclusionsRecruitment and retention were feasible. Within a trial context, My Journey 3 could be successfully delivered to adults using EIP services, but with relatively low usage rates. Further evaluation of the intervention in a larger trial may be warranted, but should include attention to implementation.Trial registrationISRCTN10004994.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Adolescent-onset psychosis is associated with more severe symptoms and poorer outcomes than adult-onset psychosis. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommend that adolescents with first episode psychosis (FEP) should be offered a combination of antipsychotic medication (APs), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and family intervention (FI). The evidence for APs in treating psychosis is limited in adolescents compared to adults. Nevertheless, it indicates that APs can reduce overall symptoms in adolescents but may cause more severe side effects, including cardiovascular and metabolic effects, than in adults. CBT and FI can improve outcomes in adults, but there are no studies of psychological interventions (PI) in patients under 18 years old. Given this limited evidence base, NICE made a specific research recommendation for determining the clinical and cost effectiveness of APs versus PI versus both treatments for adolescent FEP. METHODS/DESIGN:The current study aimed to establish the feasibility and acceptability of conducting such a trial by recruiting 14-18-year-olds with a first episode of psychosis into a feasibility prospective randomised open blinded evaluation (PROBE) design, three-arm, randomised controlled trial of APs alone versus PI alone versus a combination of both treatments. We aimed to recruit 90 participants from Early Intervention and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Teams in seven UK sites. APs were prescribed by participants' usual psychiatrists. PI comprised standardised cognitive behavioural therapy and family intervention sessions. DISCUSSION:This is the first study to compare APs to PI in an adolescent population with FEP. Recruitment finished on 31 October 2018. The study faced difficulties with recruitment across most sites due to factors including clinician and service-user treatment preferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION:Current controlled trial with ISRCTN, ISRCTN80567433 . Registered on 27 February 2017.

Project description:ImportanceSchizophrenia is associated with a reduced life expectancy of 15 to 20 years owing to a high prevalence of cardiometabolic disorders. Obesity, a key risk factor for the development of cardiometabolic alterations, is more prevalent in individuals with schizophrenia. Although obesity is linked to the altered reward processing of food cues, no studies have investigated this link in schizophrenia without the confounds of antipsychotics and illness chronicity.ObjectiveTo investigate neural responsivity to food cues in first-episode psychosis without the confounds of antipsychotic medication or illness chronicity.Design, setting, and participantsA case-control study was conducted from January 31, 2015, to September 30, 2018, in London, United Kingdom, of 29 patients with first-episode psychosis who were not taking antipsychotic medication and 28 matched controls.Main outcomes and measuresParticipants completed a food cue paradigm while undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Neural activation was indexed using the blood oxygen level-dependent hemodynamic response. The Dietary Instrument for Nutrition Education was used to measure diet, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire was used to measure exercise.ResultsThere were no significant differences in age, sex, or body mass index between the 29 patients (25 men and 4 women; mean [SD] age, 26.1 [4.8] years) and 28 controls (22 men and 6 women; mean [SD] age, 26.4 [5.5] years). Relative to controls, patients consumed more saturated fat (t46 = -3.046; P = .004) and undertook less high-intensity (U = 304.0; P = .01) and low-intensity (U = 299.5; P = .005) weekly exercise. There were no group differences in neural responses to food vs nonfood cues in whole-brain or region-of-interest analyses of the nucleus accumbens, insula, or hypothalamus. Body mass index was inversely correlated with the mean blood oxygen level-dependent signal in the nucleus accumbens in response to food vs nonfood cues in controls (R = -0.499; P = .01) but not patients (R = 0.082; P = .70).Conclusions and relevanceRelative to controls, patients with first-episode psychosis who were not taking antipsychotic medication consumed more saturated fat and showed an altered association between body mass index and neural response to food cues in the absence of differences in neural responses to food cues. These findings highlight how maladaptive eating patterns and alterations in the association between body mass index and neural responses to food cues are established early in the course of schizophrenia.

Project description:Psychotic disorders are characterized by significant deficits in attentional control, but the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these deficits early in the course of illness prior to extensive pharmacotherapy are not well understood. Moreover, little is known regarding the symptom and brain changes associated with amelioration of attentional impairments through antipsychotic pharmacotherapy. In this study 14 male patients experiencing a first-episode of psychosis with minimal prior antipsychotic treatment completed an attentional control task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging at the onset of treatment with a second generation antipsychotic (risperidone or aripiprazole) in a double blind randomized clinical trial and then again following approximately 12 weeks of treatment. In addition, 14 age-, and performance-matched healthy male volunteers who were not treated completed the same task at a baseline timepoint and then again following 12 weeks. Patients showed significantly greater activation than healthy volunteers in the right globus pallidus, left thalamus, and right thalamus at the time of the baseline scan. Among patients there was a significant reduction in right globus pallidus blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response following antipsychotic treatment that correlated significantly with improvement in response accuracy and reductions in thought disturbance. No changes in globus pallidus activation were observed in healthy volunteers over this time period. These preliminary findings suggest that improvement in attentional control and concomitant reductions in thought disturbance in first-episode psychosis may be associated with reductions in subcortical activity following administration of second-generation antipsychotics early in the course of illness. These findings have implications for understanding how changes in basal ganglia activity may be linked to improvements in attentional control through antipsychotics.

Project description:BackgroundPrehospital stroke trials will inevitably recruit patients with non-stroke conditions, so called stroke mimics. We undertook a pre-specified analysis to determine outcomes in patients with mimics in the second Rapid Intervention with Glyceryl trinitrate in Hypertensive stroke Trial (RIGHT-2).MethodsRIGHT-2 was a prospective, multicentre, paramedic-delivered, ambulance-based, sham-controlled, participant-and outcome-blinded, randomised-controlled trial of transdermal glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) in adults with ultra-acute presumed stroke in the UK. Final diagnosis (intracerebral haemorrhage, ischaemic stroke, transient ischaemic attack, mimic) was determined by the hospital investigator. This pre-specified subgroup analysis assessed the safety and efficacy of transdermal GTN (5 mg daily for 4 days) versus sham patch among stroke mimic patients. The primary outcome was the 7-level modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at 90 days.ResultsAmong 1149 participants in RIGHT-2, 297 (26%) had a final diagnosis of mimic (GTN 134, sham 163). The mimic group were younger, mean age 67 (SD: 18) vs 75 (SD: 13) years, had a longer interval from symptom onset to randomisation, median 75 [95% CI: 47,126] vs 70 [95% CI:45,108] minutes, less atrial fibrillation and a lower systolic blood pressure and Face-Arm-Speech-Time tool score than the stroke group. The three most common mimic diagnoses were seizure (17%), migraine or primary headache disorder (17%) and functional disorders (14%). At 90 days, the GTN group had a better mRS score as compared to the sham group (adjusted common odds ratio 0.54; 95% confidence intervals 0.34, 0.85; p = 0.008), a difference that persisted at 365 days. There was no difference in the proportion of patients who died in hospital, were discharged to a residential care facility, or suffered a serious adverse event.ConclusionsOne-quarter of patients suspected by paramedics to have an ultra-acute stroke were subsequently diagnosed with a non-stroke condition. GTN was associated with unexplained improved functional outcome observed at 90 days and one year, a finding that may represent an undetected baseline imbalance, chance, or real efficacy. GTN was not associated with harm.Trial registrationThis trial is registered with International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Number ISRCTN 26986053 .

Project description:Background:Though olfactory deficits are well-documented in schizophrenia, fewer studies have examined olfactory performance profiles across the psychosis spectrum. The current study examined odor identification, discrimination, and detection threshold performance in first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder with psychotic features, major depression with psychotic features, and other psychotic conditions. Method:FEP patients (n = 97) and healthy adults (n = 98) completed birhinal assessments of odor identification, discrimination, and detection threshold sensitivity for lyral and citralva. Participants also completed measures of anticipatory pleasure, anhedonia, and empathy. Differences in olfactory performances were assessed between FEP patients and controls and within FEP subgroups. Sex-stratified post hoc analyses were employed for a complete analysis of sex differences. Relationships between self-report measures and olfactory scores were also examined. Results:Individuals with psychosis had poorer scores across all olfactory measures when compared to the control group. Within the psychosis cohort, patients with schizophrenia-associated psychosis had poorer odor identification, discrimination, and citralva detection threshold scores relative to controls. In schizophrenia patients, greater olfactory disturbance was associated with increased negative symptomatology, greater self-reported anhedonia, and lower self-reported anticipatory pleasure. Patients with mood-associated psychosis performed comparable to controls though men and women in this cohort showed differential olfactory profiles. Conclusions:These findings indicate that olfactory deficits extend beyond measures of odor identification in FEP with greater deficits observed in schizophrenia-related subgroups of psychosis. Studies examining whether greater olfactory dysfunction confers greater risk for developing schizophrenia relative to other forms of psychosis are warranted.

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T40. GLYCERYL TRINITRATE IN FIRST EPISODE PSYCHOSIS UNMEDICATED WITH ANTIPSYCHOTICS: A RANDOMISED CONTROLLED FEASIBILITY STUDY

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