A clinical trail of galanthamine for improving cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of galanthamine for cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia.Methods 80 patients with schizophrenia were randomly divided into study group(30 cases finished the trial in 40 cases) treated with risperidone plus galanthamine and control group(34 cases finished the trail in 40 cases) treated with risperidone monotherapy for 8 weeks.Clinical efficacy and social function were assessed with Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale(PANSS) and Personal and Social Performance scale(PSP).Cognitive function was assessed with Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised(BVMT-R),Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised(HVLT-R),Webster Adult Intelligence Scale-Ⅲ(WAIS-Ⅲ) symbol search and digital symbol at the baseline and at the endpoint.Results At the end of the treatment,total score of PANSS decreased significantly and total score of PSP increased significantly in both groups.The positive symptoms in control group was improved more obviously than that in study group(P0.05) and there was no significant difference in the improvement of social function between the two groups(P0.05).Score of BVMT-R was improved significantly in both groups(P0.05).Score of HVLT-R was improved significantly only in control group(P0.01) and score of WAIS-III was improved significantly only in study group(P0.01).There were no significant differences in score of all items of cognitive function at the endpoint of the trail between the two groups(P0.05).Conclusion Adjunctive treatment of galantamine can not improve the cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia.