Efficacy and Tolerability of Flunarizine for the Treatment of Schizophrenia: Comparison With Haloperidol

Ambulatório de Bipolaridade

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 4

Conditions: Schizophrenia

Treatments: Drug: Flunarizine

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00740259

Flunarizine for schizophrenia

02T-264 (SMRI)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Flunarizine is a calcium channel blocker traditionally used for the treatment of vertigo and migraine. It also has the mechanism of action associated with antipsychotic activity (D2 receptor blockade), but has never been tested as such. The investigators hypothesis is that flunarizine can be an atypical antipsychotic.

Full description

The main advantage of flunarizine over other D2 receptor blockers is its long half-life, so that it may be administered weekly or may delay relapse if medication is interrupted.

Enrollment: 70 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 60 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• DSM-IV schizophrenic or schizoaffective patients between 18 and 55 years old with a PANSS score above 45.

Exclusion criteria

• Clinical disease
• Pregnancy
• Drug dependence (except for nicotine) in the past month and history of being refractory to at least 2 antipsychotics taken appropriately.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Quadruple Blind