Extrapyramidal side-effects in antipsychotic drug therapeutics
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Acceptability and sensitivity of a novel objective method for assessing micrographia as a measure of extrapyramidal side-effects in antipsychotic-treated patients
IRAS ID
169443
Contact name
David GC Owens
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Certain drugs have transformed the lives of patients with schizophrenia, one of the most disabling medical disorders. All these drugs act by interfering with a chemical messenger in the brain, (dopamine). Unfortunately, this chemical is also involved in the workings of brain areas that control movement, resulting in side-effects that look similar to Parkinson's disease. As a result, half of all patients stop taking these drugs within their first year of treatment.
Early and subtle features of drug-induced parkinsonism can only be objectively assessed in special movement laboratories, using procedures that are not ‘real-life’ and that are potentially distressing to individuals with major psychiatric illnesses. It has been suggested, however, that changes to handwriting (micrographia) offer simple, early and sensitive indicators of drug-induced neurological side-effects. Handwriting is highly variable and studies have shown that the judgement of individuals simply looking for change (visual inspection) is not sufficiently reliable to be applied in routine clinical practice. This project proposes to assess, in two stages, the clinical usefulness of technology adapted from a standard computer tablet and pen device for assessing handwriting changes in patients receiving antipsychotic medications.
The first, testing the acceptability of this technology as a routine clinical tool to those with psychotic illnesses using a group of patients asked to perform standardised writing tasks.
The second part involves evaluation of the pen's sensitivity relative to standard clinical examination using two groups of patients treated on clinical grounds with one of two routine antipsychotics. One more likely to be liable to cause side-effects, the other less so.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
17/WS/0016
Date of REC Opinion
24 Jan 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion