Augmenting Zyprexa With Naltrexone to Ameliorate Metabolic Side-Effects
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2011-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The main purpose of this study is to determine whether the opioid antagonist naltrexone is
helpful in ameliorating the weight gain and other adverse metabolic side effects experienced
by schizophrenic patients taking the second generation antipsychotic (SGA) Zyprexa.
Schizophrenics may have an altered/enhanced endogenous opioidergic drive, and because of
this, normally painful stimuli will be sensed as less painful in schizophrenics vs. healthy
controls. A secondary hypothesis for this study is that naltrexone augmentation of Zyprexa
will normalize subjective pain ratings. Our tertiary objective is to examine the safety and
tolerability of naltrexone in Zyprexa-treated patients with schizophrenia.