CDP-choline add-on Therapy to Risperidone Reduces Negative Symptoms in schizophrenia
A recent double-blind and placebo-controlled study with 66 patients with stable schizophrenia were randomized to receive either 2,500 mg/day of the nutritional supplement citicoline or placebo in addition to risperidone for 8 weeks. The citicoline group demonstrated significantly greater improvement in negative scores compared with the placebo.
Patients were randomly allocated to receive either 2,500 mg/day citicoline or placebo plus risperidone. CDP‐choline titration was conducted in 1 week. Participants received 1,000 mg/day of CDP‐choline for 3 days; on day four, the dose of CDP‐choline was increased to 2,000 mg/day in two divided doses for 4 days. At the beginning of week 2, patients received maximum fixed dose of 2,500 mg/day in two divided doses, throughout the trial. Placebo dose titration followed the same schedule. All participants received risperidone (Risperdal, Janssen Pharmaceuticals) up to 6 mg/day during the course of the trial. A drug surveillance study of citicoline in 4,191 stroke patients by Cho and Kim (2009) reported that more favorable results were observed in patients given high doses of citicoline (2,000–4,000 mg/day) for 6 weeks. Therefore, we decided to utilize a relatively high dose of citicoline in our study. Oral tablets with identical taste and appearance were used to mask treatment allocation. The tablets were provided every 2 weeks on the follow‐up day.
The Study concluded that Citicoline add-on therapy to risperidone can effectively improve the primary negative symptoms of patients with schizophrenia.
Full Research Paper Available Here (PDF): https://sci-hub.wf/10.1002/hup.2662#
