#Auditory schizophrenia trial#
#Auditory schizophrenia series#

Because this network plays an integral role in learning and memory, it wanted to see whether xanomeline could improve the cognition of Alzheimer’s patients.

In the 1990s, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly developed xanomeline as a way of targeting so-called muscarinic receptors in the brain, which are associated with a network of brain chemicals called the cholinergic system.

#Auditory schizophrenia series#

KarXT emerged through a series of accidental breakthroughs. “For the first time in a really long time, we have real hope for some breakthroughs,” says Kantrowitz. If KarXT is greenlit by the US Food and Drug Administration, it may be available in 2024 as the first genuinely novel antipsychotic in three decades. The benefits are relatively small, but it showed some reduction of symptoms without the side-effects of previous drugs.

#Auditory schizophrenia trial#

In March, a small Boston-based company called Karuna Therapeutics reported a successful phase III clinical trial of a new drug called KarXT, a combination of the chemicals xanomeline and trospium chloride. It’s a pretty horrible choice.” For the first time in a really long time, we have real hope for some breakthroughs Joshua Kantrowitzīut there is hope that better ways of treating schizophrenia are starting to emerge. “I’m left with the choice of my patient being crippled by voices and delusions, estranged from his family, or being able to function, get a job and live some kind of life, but 100lb heavier. “Olanzapine in many ways is an excellent drug, and there are some patients who only really respond to it, but it can cause them to gain life-altering weight,” he says. Joshua Kantrowitz, associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University, mentions a current patient who has gained 45kg (100lb) since taking olanzapine. Photograph: Universal/Sportsphoto/AllstarĬardiovascular disease is the cause of death in 40-50% of schizophrenia patients, so psychiatrists often face an appalling dilemma: prescribe a medication that may relieve some symptoms but could make patients sicker in other ways.

The Hollywood version of schizophrenia: Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind. Older medications such as haloperidol and promazine have been known to induce Parkinson’s-like tremors and rigidity, while newer drugs such as clozapine and olanzapine, which emerged in the 1980s and 90s, cause excessive weight gain, often resulting in diabetes and heart problems. But the drugs mean that many patients must endure debilitating side-effects, which in some cases may even shorten their lives. Since the 1950s, generations of antipsychotics have been developed, aimed at eliminating the paranoia and visual, auditory, and sensory hallucinations that patients can experience, by targeting the brain chemical dopamine. While the concept of a schizophrenia patient trapped within their own hallucinations has been hugely popular with Hollywood – the movies A Beautiful Mind and Shutter Island both use the delusions and escalating paranoia of the title character as part of the plot – this attention has not extended to their medical care. “In a societal context, we owe it to these people to help them, because they are the ones paying for the fact that our species will continue to develop and evolve.”īut by and large, society has done poorly in terms of caring for those with the condition, with many being vulnerable and marginalised. “A small minority of unlucky individuals pay a very high price for our ability to be creative and have the attributes that gave us the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven,” he says. Kári Stefánsson of deCode genetics in Iceland: ‘We owe it to these people to help them.’ Photograph: Alamy