Vollenweider

Fakultäten » Medizinische Fakultät » Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik » Affektive Erkrankungen und Allgemeinpsychiatrie Zürich Ost, Klinik für » Prof. Dr. Daniel Hell (emeritiert) » Vollenweider

Completed research project

Title / Titel	Effect of Clozapine on Sensorimotor gating and Cognition in Healthy Subjects
PDF	Abstract (PDF, 14 KB)
Summary / Zusammenfassung	Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex provides a valuable translational model to study the neuropharmacological basis and treatment effect of antipsychotic medication on inhibitory or gating deficits in schizophrenia as well as in normal subjects with poor gating capacity. Although recent cross-sectional studies indicate that atypical antipsychotics such as clozapine may be superior over typical ones in normalizing PPI deficits in schizophrenia, no longitudinal studies on the effect of clozapine are yet available. The hypothesis that clozapine improves prepulse inhibition in healthy subjects with low versus those with high PPI levels will be tested.
Publications / Publikationen	Vollenweider FX, Barro M, Csomor PA, Feldon J. 2006. Clozapine enhances prepulse inhibition in healthy humans with low but not with high prepulse inhibition levels. Biol Psychiatry 60(6):597-603.
Keywords / Suchbegriffe	clozapine, prepulse inhibition, sensorimotor, gating,startle, atypical antipsychotics
Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte	PD Dr. F.X. Vollenweider (Project Leader) vollen@bli.uzh.ch Dipl. sc. nat. Ph. Csomor philipp.csomor@bli.uzh.ch M. Barro
Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch	Foundation Heffter, USA
In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit	Prof. J. Feldon, Laboratory of Behavioural Neurobiology, ETH Zurich Switzerland
Duration of Project / Projektdauer	Apr 2004 to Mar 2006