Minocycline add-on to Antipsychotics for the Treatment of Negative and Cognitive Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Summary

Current medications have only a limited effect on two core symptoms of schizophrenia, negative symptoms and cognitive deficits. Minocycline is a second-generation tetracycline which has a beneficial effect in various neurological disorders. In the past years, various findings from clinical studies showed its potential role for the treatment of these symptoms of schizophrenia. The current study aims to examine the efficacy of minocycline as add-on treatment for alleviating positive, negative and cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia patients.The current study is a single center, double-blind, randomized study that assess the adjuvant therapeutic effect of minocycline vs. placebo added to antipsychotic medications, in adult patients suffering from schizophrenia. Patients will be recruited and randomly allocated to a minocycline or placebo treatment (200 mg/day) for 6 weeks of treatment. In addition, all patients will receive probiotics (450mg/day) in order to prevent any gastrointestinal influences of antibiotics administration. Positive and negative symptoms , as well as cognitive functions will be assessed before and after treatment.

Timeline

Start

2015-01

Primary completion

2017-02

Completion

2018-01

Publications

• Background Chaudhry IB, Hallak J, Husain N, Minhas F, Stirling J, Richardson P, Dursun S, Dunn G, Deakin B. Minocycline benefits negative symptoms in early schizophrenia: a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial in patients on standard treatment. J Psychopharmacol. 2012 Sep;26(9):1185-93. doi: 10.1177/0269881112444941. Epub 2012 Apr 23.
• Background Chaves C, de Marque CR, Wichert-Ana L, Maia-de-Oliveira JP, Itikawa EN, Crippa JA, Zuardi AW, Todd KG, Baker GB, Dursun SM, Hallak JE. Functional neuroimaging of minocycline's effect in a patient with schizophrenia. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2010 Apr 16;34(3):550-2. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2010.01.020. Epub 2010 Feb 6. No abstract available.
• Background Davis MC, Horan WP, Marder SR. Psychopharmacology of the negative symptoms: current status and prospects for progress. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2014 May;24(5):788-99. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2013.10.010. Epub 2013 Nov 4.
• Background Dean OM, Data-Franco J, Giorlando F, Berk M. Minocycline: therapeutic potential in psychiatry. CNS Drugs. 2012 May 1;26(5):391-401. doi: 10.2165/11632000-000000000-00000.
• Background Jhamnani K, Shivakumar V, Kalmady S, Rao NP, Venkatasubramanian G. Successful use of add-on minocycline for treatment of persistent negative symptoms in schizophrenia. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2013 Winter;25(1):E06-7. doi: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.11120376. No abstract available.
• Background Khodaie-Ardakani MR, Mirshafiee O, Farokhnia M, Tajdini M, Hosseini SM, Modabbernia A, Rezaei F, Salehi B, Yekehtaz H, Ashrafi M, Tabrizi M, Akhondzadeh S. Minocycline add-on to risperidone for treatment of negative symptoms in patients with stable schizophrenia: randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study. Psychiatry Res. 2014 Mar 30;215(3):540-6. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.12.051. Epub 2014 Jan 9.
• Background Levkovitz Y, Mendlovich S, Riwkes S, Braw Y, Levkovitch-Verbin H, Gal G, Fennig S, Treves I, Kron S. A double-blind, randomized study of minocycline for the treatment of negative and cognitive symptoms in early-phase schizophrenia. J Clin Psychiatry. 2010 Feb;71(2):138-49. doi: 10.4088/JCP.08m04666yel. Epub 2009 Nov 3.
• Background Monji A, Kato T, Kanba S. Cytokines and schizophrenia: Microglia hypothesis of schizophrenia. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2009 Jun;63(3):257-65. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1819.2009.01945.x.
• Background Lisiecka DM, Suckling J, Barnes TR, Chaudhry IB, Dazzan P, Husain N, Jones PB, Joyce EM, Lawrie SM, Upthegrove R, Deakin B. The benefit of minocycline on negative symptoms in early-phase psychosis in addition to standard care - extent and mechanism (BeneMin): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials. 2015 Mar 2;16:71. doi: 10.1186/s13063-015-0580-x.
• Background Meyer U, Schwarz MJ, Muller N. Inflammatory processes in schizophrenia: a promising neuroimmunological target for the treatment of negative/cognitive symptoms and beyond. Pharmacol Ther. 2011 Oct;132(1):96-110. doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2011.06.003. Epub 2011 Jun 15.

Drugs

Indications