The Effect of Amisulpride on Social Cognition (v1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Effect of Amisulpride on Social Cognition in Healthy Volunteers
IRAS ID
156928
Contact name
Richard Drake
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Research summary
Recent research suggests that sustained use of antipsychotic medication in patients with schizophrenia is associated with greater long-term functional disability (things like worse employment rates and poorer long term social recovery), but we are not sure why. Impaired social cognition is common in schizophrenia, and includes the ability to understand other people’s emotional states and interpret their state of mind. Poor social cognition has also been strongly associated with functional disability. Antipsychotics work in some of the areas in the brain thought to be involved in social cognitive processing. However, we do not know if antipsychotics directly impair social cognition. If so, this could help explain why long-term use of antipsychotic medication is associated with functional disability. In addition, we could potentially start developing ways to try and reduce this harmful side effect. This study will recruit healthy volunteers to investigate the effect of a single dose of antipsychotic medication (amisulpride) on their ability to understand other people’s emotional state, the ability to infer others intentions and state of mind, and their willingness to share.
REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/1298
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion