Guanfacine treatment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia

Norepinephrine plays a significant role in the working memory functions of the prefrontal cortex by its actions at alpha-2a noradrenergic receptors. G uanfacine has demonstrated efficacy in reversing working memory deficits in non-human primate. In the present study the effect of guanfacine adjunctiv e treatment to neuroleptics on the cognitive performance of schizophrenic p atients was investigated in a four week, placebo-con trolled, double-blind, parallel design trial. The primary analyses revealed no significant differ ences between guanfacine and placebo treatment; however, exploratory non-pa rametric statistics revealed some significant and some trend differences be tween guanfacine and placebo on spatial working memory test performance and CPT reaction time in those subjects treated with atypical neuroleptics. (C ) 2001 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Published by Elsevier S cience Inc.