October 22, 2008

A Study of the Effect of Lamotrigine (Lamictal) on Patients with Schizophrenia

Principal Investigator: Herbert Meltzer, PhD

This phase 3 industry-sponsored study prescribed Lamictal (lamotrigine) to people with schizophrenia who were already on an atypical antipsychotic (i.e. Risperdal or Geodon). There were no publications that were specifically linked to this trial, but there have been further studies with published results that have shown the lack of efficacy of Lamictal.

Further studies have found that Lamictal does not improve positive or negative symptoms in schizophrenia compared to a placebo (Goff, et al, 2007). Lamictal might even make things worse for people with paranoid schizophrenia since some research has shown an increase of positive symptoms for that patients prescribed Lamictal (Konstantakopoulos, et al, 2008).

References
Goff, D.C., Keefe, R., Citrome, L., Davy, K., Krystal, J.H., Large, C., Thompson, T., Volavka, J., & Webster, E. (2007). Lamotrigine as add-on therapy in schizophrenia: Results of 2 placebo-controlled trials. Journal of Clinical
Psychopharmacology. 27(6): 582-589.

Konstantakopoulos, G., Oulis, P., Koulouris, G.C., Masdrakis, V.G., & Michalopoulou, P.G. (2008) Lamotrigine-associated exacerbation of positive symptoms in paranoid schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research. 98(1-3): 325-326.