The ATLAS Trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A pragmatic randomised double-blind trial of Antipsychotic Treatment of very LAte-onset Schizophrenia-like psychosis: The ATLAS Trial
IRAS ID
59385
Contact name
Robert Howard
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Eudract number
2010-022184-35
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 4 months, 0 days
Research summary
A psychotic illness with many of the features of schizophrenia including hallucinations and delusions can begin for the first time in old age. Although there are important differences between this late-life onset illness and schizophrenia which generally begins in early adult life, the treatments that are available for both disorders have only been shown to work for the early onset variety of psychosis. Antipsychotic medication may have serious and disabling side-effects and has been associated with an increased risk of stroke in older people. It is therefore important to discover whether or not antipsychotic treatment is better than placebo in the management of psychosis symptoms in this group of older people and whether there are advantages in continuing treatment for more than 12 weeks. The ATLAS trial will be the first randomised placebo-controlled trial to investigate this. In a first phase, participants will be randomised in a 2:1 ratio to receive either placebo or the antipsychotic drug amisulpride for 12 weeks. In the second phase (which runs for a further 24 weeks), half of the participants who received amisulpride in the first phase will continue with this treatment and half will receive placebo treatment. Patients allocated placebo will switch to amisulpride.
REC name
London - Surrey Borders Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
11/LO/1267
Date of REC Opinion
23 Sep 2011
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion