Effects of risperidone, amisulpride and nicotine on eye movement control and their modulation by schizotypy.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

One such model system combines the study of surrogate populations expressing high levels of schizotypy with oculomotor biomarkers.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 233 participants taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, young adults and adults, both men and women.

In this randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study 233 healthy participants performed prosaccade (PS), antisaccade (AS) and smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) tasks after being randomly assigned to one of four drug groups (nicotine, risperidone, amisulpride, placebo).

Participants were classified into medium- and high-schizotypy groups based on their scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ, Raine (Schizophr Bull 17:555-564, 1991)).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide), giving a reference point.

What Was Measured

One such model system combines the study of surrogate populations expressing high levels of schizotypy with oculomotor biomarkers.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Amisulpride, Antipsychotic Agents, Nicotine, Psychometrics, Pursuit, Smooth, Risperidone and Saccades.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in 233 participants.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2013 (Psychopharmacology), a journal based in Germany.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.