Conditions: Schizophrenia
Keywords: Cognitive impairments Negative symptoms
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 84
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This is a study of a new medication for the treatment of cognitive impairments (thinking difficulties) and negative symptoms in people with schizophrenia. The new medication is rasagiline. Rasagiline is a drug which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. It is used to treat cognitive problems.

Detailed description:
The study will consist of two phases: a 4-week continued stability phase (lead-in phase) and a 12-week double-blind treatment phase. In the lead-in phase, subjects receiving antipsychotic medication, who manifest moderate to severe and persistent negative symptoms, will remain on their maintenance regimen for at least four weeks. The treatment phase will be a 12-week, parallel groups, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of adjunctive rasagiline (1 mg/day), a selective MAO-B oxidase inhibitor.

Arms:
arm 1: Treatment with Rasagiline arm 2: Treatment with Placebo

Interventions: intervention 1: rasagiline (Pharmacodynamics) intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Rasagiline 1 mg/day for 12 weeks intervention 2: Placebo 1 tablet each day

Protocol document: