Ziprasidone and Sertraline in PTSD

Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

Status: Terminated

Conditions: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Treatments: Drug: ziprasidone, sertraline

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00248261

ZiSe

NRA1280017

Details and patient eligibility

About

Serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, such as sertraline, are the medication of choice in post-traumatic stress disorder. However, it takes several weeks before they ameliorate symptoms. Therefore, we will add ziprasidone (vs. placebo) medication during the first four weeks of sertraline in order to find out if this strategy accelerates symptomatic relief.

Full description

A current problem in the pharmacotherapy of PTSD is that the medication of choice, serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, take several weeks before they show considerable effects on PTSD symptoms. Addition of typical neuroleptics, such as ziprasidone, offers a potential strategy to bring about a faster symptomatic relief, because they display anxiolytic properties without the risk of dependence. Therefore, in addition to standard sertraline therapy (at least 8 weeks), we will give ziprasidone vs. placebo over the first four weeks in a double-blind randomized design.

Enrollment: 7 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Clinical diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Exclusion criteria

Lifetime psychotic disorders, current substance dependency, gravidity, lactation, tartrazine hypersensitivity, contraindication against sertraline or ziprasidone