January 29, 2010
Health Sciences Campus, Kochi
Amrita’s Dr. Sebind Kumar, was awarded the 2nd place for his poster at the 3rd South Asian Regional Symposium on Evidence Informed Healthcare recently conducted at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. Dr. Sebind, MBBS, DPM, DNB, is Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Amrita School of Medicine.
Titled Modafinil for clozapine induced adverse effects in people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders in remission: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, Dr. Sebind’s poster was selected from 53 other posters on various medical topics, from India and abroad.
In this presentation insights and evidence was provided for the use of Clozapine, for treatment of schizophrenia. A brain disorder characterized by delusional thinking, schizophrenia results in symptoms such as hallucinations, disorganized speech and catatonic behavior.
An antipsychotic medication, Clozapine is commonly used in the treatment of schizophrenia. Its use is hampered though by adverse effects such as sedation, hyper salivation and weight gain. Dr. Sebind’s study aimed at finding out if the drug Modafinil could be used to mitigate these adverse effects.
“The study used a randomized control design, wherein patients were divided into two groups,” stated Dr. Sebind. “One group received the actual drug and the other group received a placebo, an inert substance which looked like the actual drug, but had no effects of its own.”
The study found that Modafinil shows some promise in treating the adverse effects of Clozapine. However, two patients in a sample group of thirty-four, experienced a worsening of psychosis and anxiety. The conclusion of the study was that drug’s use has to be weighed against the potential side effects of worsening of psychosis and anxiety.
“Every day, hundreds of articles come out on various topics, making it challenging for the clinician to remain up-to-date,” said Dr. Sebind. “This forum, organized by the Cochrane Collaboration, provided a great opportunity for all participants to review all available evidence on a particular drug.”
The Christian Medical College, Vellore is the Center for the South Asian Cochrane Network and one of the twenty-four Cochrane Centers worldwide. An international not-for-profit and independent organization, Cochrane International promotes, produces and disseminates up-to-date evidence about the effects of healthcare, worldwide.
